Tobacco: Growing, Curing, & Manufacturing: A Handbook for Planters in All Parts of the World — John Shaqi
Tobacco: Growing, Curing, & Manufacturing: A Handbook for Planters in All Parts of the World
Science
Tobacco: Growing, Curing, & Manufacturing: A Handbook for Planters in All Parts of the World
Tobacco; Tobacco industry
Schneider remarks that “from the first starting of the tobacco plant, it
has its enemies. First appears a cutworm that works in the soil and eats
the roots off. Then comes a little caterpillar which enjoys itself on
the young leaves, and lastly the beautiful and large tobacco-worm, which
eats into the leaf, and in a short time leaves nothing but the
leaf-stems and stalk. The only remedies against these enemies are the
vigilance and industry of the planter—looking after them, digging up,
picking, and destroying once or twice a day, or as often as there are
any traces of them. Children, to whom premiums are offered, will be very
successful in destroying them. A herd of turkeys, if given access to the
tobacco-field, are a very valuable help. A negro from South Carolina
told me a few days ago, that a solution of blue vitriol in water,
sprinkled over the plants, will kill the worms. The remedy may be worth
trying. Of course the solution must be made weak enough, so that it will
not destroy the plants as well as the worms.”
On the same subject, White recommends the planter on the “next, or at
farthest, the second morning after having set your plants, go over to
see that the worms do not eat up one-half of them. You can tell where
they are and have been, by seeing a plant with a single leaf, and
sometimes the whole plant eaten off and drawn down into the hole
occupied by a large brown or black worm; you will see little ant-hills
like, and round holes in the ground; by poking around a little in the
dirt, you will find a worm very near the mouth of these little holes.
Destroy it, and all you can find, and thus save your crop. This
searching for worms must be kept up till they cease to do mischief. All
plants missing in the field should be renewed from the bed at the first
opportunity. The morning is the best time to find the worms, as they are
near the surface of the ground; later, they retire into the ground to
appear again near sundown, and work during the night and early morning.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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