moist state from the
time the seed is planted until the young plants are large enough to
be set out.

The nurseries being made, proceed to prepare the land where the
tobacco is to be set out. If the land is newly cleared--and new land
is probably more favorable to the production of this plant than it
is to that of any other, both as respects quality and
quantity--remove as many of the stumps and roots as possible, and
dig up the ground in such a manner as to render the surface
perfectly loose; then level the ground, and in this state leave it
until the nursery plants have acquired about one-half the growth
necessary to admit of their being set out; then break up the ground
a second time in the same manner as at first, as in this way all the
small fibres of roots and their rooted parts will be more or less
separated, and thus obviate much of that degree of sponginess so
common to new land, and which is in a great measure the cause of new
land seldom producing well the first year, as the soil does not lay
close enough to the roots of the plants growing in it, so that a
shower of rain produces no other effect than that of removing the
earth still more from them.

The ground having been prepared and properly levelled off, and the
plants, sufficiently grown to be taken up--say of the size of good
cabbage plants--take advantage of the first wet or cloudy weather to
commence setting them out. This should be done with great care, and
the plants put single at equal distances, that is, about three feet
north and south, and two and a-half, or two and three-fourths feet
east and west. They are placed thus close to each other to prevent
the leaves growing too large. The direction of the rows, however,
should alter according to the situation of the land; where it has
any inclination, the widest space should run across it, as the bed
will have to be made so as to prevent the soil from being washed
from the roots by rain when bedded; but where the land is rather
level, the three feet rows should be north and south, so as to give
to the plants a more full effect on them by passing across the beds,
than by crossing them in an oblique direction. To set the plants out
regularly, take a task line of 105 feet in length, with a pointed
stick three feet long attached to each end of it, then insert a