hind in the first or fecond topping, or until it grows too late for the plant to fupport fo many leaves; then to fall to eight, and even to fix: but this the skilful topper will be the best judge of, as it can be only known from experience. The tobacco is now attacked by another enemy, as dangerous and as deftructive as any; it is the horn-worm, of a green colour, which grows to a large fize, and, if fuffered to stay on the plant, will deftroy the whole. The first glut of them, as the planters call it, will be when the tobacco is in the state abovementioned; and hands must be almoft conftantly employed in pulling them off and preventing their increase; but if the planter has a flock of young turkeys to turn into the field, they will effectually deftroy thefe worms. The planter must again hill up his tobacco and lighten the ground between the hills, that the roots of the tobacco may extend themfelves with eafe. Immediately after topping, the tobacco begins to throw out fuckers between the leaves where they join, the stalk: these fhould be carefully taken off, for if they are fuffered to grow, they greatly exhauft the plant. Not long after the first glut of worms comes a fecond, in greater quantities than the former, and must be treated in the fame manner.

Tobacco, thus managed, will begin to ripen in the month of Auguft, when it is to be cut, as it ripens, in order to be houfed: but the planter, if he is not a judge himself, or not able to atttend to it, should have a very skilful fet of cutters, who know well when tobacco is ripe; for if it be cut before it is full ripe, it will never cure of a good colour, and will rot in the hogfhead after it is prized. The tobacco, when ripe, changes its colour and looks greyish; the leaf feels thick, and if preffed between the finger and thumb wik eafily crack; but experience alone can enable a perfon to judge when tobacco is fully ripe.

We think the best time to cut tobacco is the afternoon, when the fun has not power to burn it, but only causes the leaves to be supple, that they may be handled without breaking: it fhould then remain on the ground all night; the next morning, after the dew is off, and before the fun has power to burn it, it must be picked up, but there fhould be no appearance of rain the preceding night; for fhould a heavy rain fall upon the tobacco, when lying on the ground, it will injure it greatly, by filling it with grit, and perhaps bruifing it. Tobacco is indeed generally cut in the morning, but in this cafe it must be watched very narrowly, and picked up, and put in fmall

heaps

heaps on the ground, before it begins to burn; for if it be scorched by the fun it is good for nothing.

There are different methods taken in the management of tobacco immediately after being cut, and fufficiently killed by the fun for handling fome hang it upon fences until it is nearly half-cured before they carry it to hang up in houfes built for the purpofe; but this mode we cannot approve of, as the leaves are too much exposed to the fun, and are apt to be injured. A much better method is, to have fcaffolds made close to the house intended to cure the tobacco in; and having a fufficient number of tobacco fticks, of about four feet and a half long, and an inch thick, to bring in the tobacco from the field, and putting from ten to fourteen or fifteen plants upon a ftick, to fix the fticks upon this fcaffold, about nine inches one from another. There the tobacco fhould remain until the leaves turn yellow. By this method the fun is prevented from coming to the leaves, and the rays only fall on the stalks. After remaining a fufficient time, the flicks fhould be removed with the tobacco on them, into the house, and be fixed where they are to remain until the tobacco be fully cured.

The houfes built for the tobacco fhould, be from thirty to fixty feet long, and about twenty feet wide; the roof to have wind beams about four feet diftance to fix the sticks on, and contrived at proper fpaces to receive the whole of the tobacco until the house is full; fo that there should be a space of fix inches between the tails of the upper plants and heads of the lower, for the air to pass through.

If a perfon has houfe-room enough, we would advise, that the tobacco fhould have no fun, but be carried into the house imme. diately after it is killed, and there hung upon the sticks. But, in this cafe, the plants fhould be very few on the fticks, and the fticks at a greater distance from each other, for tobacco is very apt to be injured in the house if hung too clofe in a green state. If a crop could be cured in this way, without fun, its colour would be more bright, and the flavour finer, the whole juices being preferved unexhaled.

When the tobacco is fully cured in the houfe, which may be known by the colour of the leaf and the dryness of the stem, it may be then stripped from the ftalk, when it is in a proper state, that is, in a feafon which moiftens it fo as it can be handled. As foon as the tobacco is fo pliant, that it can be handled without breaking the leaves, it is to be ftruck from the fticks, put in bulk

until it is ftripped from the ftalk; which, in the earlier part of the year, fhould be immediately done, left the ftalks, which are green, fhould injure, the leaf. If the tobacco is too high in case when it is ftruck, it will be apt to rot when it gets into a sweat. One thing fhould be particularly attended to, and that is, it fhould be ftruck as it first comes into cafe, for if it hangs until it is too high, or moift, and you should wait until the moisture dries away to the state we advise it to be in when you ftrike it, it will moft certainly, when in bulk, return to its full ftate of moisture; and therefore it should hang until it is perfectly dry; and you are to wait till another feafon arrives to put it in proper cafe.

The next thing to be done after the tobacco is ftruck is to strip it; and here particular attention is neceffary: all the indifferent leaves are first to be pulled from the stalk, by forters well acquainted with the bufinefs, and tied by themfelves, to be afterwards stemmed. The plant, with the fine leaves, is to be thrown to the ftrippers; they, are to strip off the leaves, and tie up five leaves in a bundle, of equal goodness. When you have got enough for a hogshead, which we fhould advise not to be more than a thousand weight, it fhould be immediately packed up with very great care, and prized. The hogfheads fhould be made of staves not exceeding forty-eight inches long, and the head ought not to be more than from thirty to thirty-two inches in diameter. No directions can be given here for the packing, it can only be learned from practice. If more tobacco than here recommended be prized into a hogfhead, without much care it will be apt to be bruised, a circumftance which fhould be carefully avoided.

ON THE CULTURE OF INDIGO.

As the culture of this plant is in a manner confined to particular parts of the United States, the obfervations thereon will be concife; as, however, it may ere long be attempted, and certainly with a great probability of fuccefs, in fome parts of the fouthern States, where it has not as yet been tried, the introduction of these remarks will need no apology.

The indigo tree is a ftraight and rather bufhy plant: from its root arifes a ligneous brittle ftem, of the height of two feet, branching from the beginning, white on the infide, and covered with a greyish bark: the leaves are alternate, composed of several small leaves difpofed in two rows along a common cofta, which is ter

minated

minated by a fingle foliolum, and furnished at its bafis with two small membranes which are called ftipula: at the extremity of each branch arise clusters of reddish, papilionaceous flowers, rather fmall, and compofed of a number of petals: the ftamina, to the number of fix, and the piftil, furmounted with a fingle style, are arranged as they are in most of the herbaceous flowers: the pistil is changed into a finall rounded pod, flightly curved, one inch in length, and a line and a half in breadth, full of cylindrical, fhining and brownish feeds.

This plant requires a light foil, well tilled, and never deluged with water; for this reafon fpots are preferred which are floping, because this pofition preferves the indigo plant from the stagnation of the rain, which might destroy it, and from inundations, that might cover it with a prejudicial flime. Low and flat grounds may alfo be employed for this culture, if channels and ditches are made to draw off the waters, and if care be taken to plant them only after the rainy feafon, which often occafions overflowings. The feed is fown in little furrows made by the hoe, two or three inches in depth, at the distance of a foot from each other, and in as straight a line as poflible. Continual attention is required to pluck up the the weeds, which would foon choak the plant. Though it may be fown in all feafons, the fpring is commonly preferred. Moisture caufes this plant to shoot above the furface in three or four days: it is ripe at the end of two months. When it begins to flower, it is cut with pruning-knives, and cut again at the end of every fix weeks, if the weather be a little rainy: it lasts about two years, after which term it degenerates; it is then plucked up and planted afrefli.

As this plant foon exhaufts the foil, because it does not absorb a fufficient quantity of air and dew to moisten the earth, it is of advantage to the planter to have a vast space which may remain covered with trees, till it becomes neceffary to fell them, in order to make room for the indigo; for trees are to be confidered as fyphons, by means of which the earth and air reciprocally communicate to each other their fluid and vegetating fubftance; fyphons, into which the vapours and the juices being alternately drawn, are kept in equilibrium. Thus while the fap afcends by the roots to the branches, the leaves draw in the air and vapours, which circulating through the fibres of the tree defcend again into the earth, and restore to it in dew what it lofes in fap. It is in order to maintain this reciprocal influence, that when there are no trees to preferve the fields in a VOL. III.

3 K

proper

proper ftate for the fowing of indigo, it is cuftomary to cover those which are exhaufted by this plant with potatoes or lianes, the creeping branches of which preserve the freshness of the earth, while the leaves, when burnt, renew its fertility.

Indigo is diftinguished into feveral fpecies, of which only two are cultivated: the true indigo, which is the fort we have been fpeaking of, and the baftard indigo, which differs from the former, in having a much higher, more woody, and more durable stem; in having its foliola longer and narrower, its pods more curved, and its feeds black. Though the first be fold at a higher price, it is ufually advantageous to cultivate the other, because it is not fo fre quently renewed, is heavier, and yields more leaves, the produce of which is, however, lefs, from an equal quantity. The first will grow in many different foils: the fecond fucceeds best in those which are most exposed to the rain. Both are liable to great accidents in their early state. They are fometimes burnt up by the heat of the fun, or choaked by a web with which they are furrounded by an infect peculiar to thefe regions. Sometimes the plant becomes dry, and is destroyed by another very common infect; at other times, the leaves, which are the valuable part of the plant, are de voured in the space of twenty-four hours by caterpillars. This laft misfortune, which is but too common, hath given occasion to the faying, that "the planters of indigo went to bed rich, and rofe in the morning totally ruined.”

This production ought to be gathered in with great precaution, for fear of making the farina that lies on the leaves, and which is very valuable, fall off by fhaking it. When gathered, it is thrown into the fteeping-vat, which is a large tub filled with water. Here it undergoes a fermentation, which in twenty-four hours at farthest is com. pleted. A cock is then turned, to let the water run into the second tub, called the mortar or pounding-tub. The fteeping-vat is then cleaned out, that fresh plants may be thrown in; and thus the work is continued without interruption.

The water which hath run into the pounding-tub, is found impregnated with a very fubtle earth, which alone conftitutes the dregs or blue fubftance that is the object of this procefs, and which must be feparated from the ufelefs falt of the plant, becaufe this makes the dregs fwim on the furface. To effect this, the water is forcibly agitated with wooden buckets that are full of holes, and fixed to a long handle. This part of the process requires the greatest pre

caution.