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Hibbard, Benjamin Horace, 1870-1955 / The history of agriculture in Dane County, Wisconsin
(1904)
Chapter III: Tobacco, pp. 155-175
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Page 168
BULLETIN O' TiE tUIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN. thirty inches apart, with the roots lying in this furrow. A scraper under the boys throws loose dirt over the roots, and a wheel on the back of the truck presses down the loose dirt. The attachment for watering the plant is a box set on the axle, a hose leading from the box to the ground, and a valve opened and closed by an eccentric on one of the large wheels. It works very well, and instead of soaking the surface, waters only at the root of the plant. With boys accustomed to feeding, the plants should be set very well, and it is said that a man and two boys, with this machine, can set as many as eight or ten can by hand. The great beauty of the setter, however, lies in the fact that when the farmer has his field ready, he can go right ahead and put out the tobacco, not having to wait for rain. With this alone to recommend it, if some automatic feed can be arranged, the invention will be an invaluable one for the grower.-Janes- ville Gafette." 72 The automatic feed has not vet been provided and the tobacco planters seem well satisfied with the machine as it is. One of the most gratifying features of the transplanter is the manner in which the watering is done; the water is applied at the roots of the plant and the fine dry soil, gently pressed down by the wheel at the rear, seldom results in "puddling," which so often gave trouble when the setting and watering were done by hand. A writer in i88i called the hoe "the most important implement in the tobacco field," for at that time the greater part of the cul- tivation was done in that primitive way, but by I885 the hand hoe was almost entirely put out of business by the horse hoe. At present the usual practice is to go over the field once by hand to cut out the few weeds missed by the cultivator, but this is a light task. The horse cultivator is put at work almost as soon as the plants are set and there is little chance of using it too often up to the time the leaves are in danger of injury. Tobacco grows rapidly, sometimes being ready to harvest in less than two months after planting, and there is little time to be lost, for unless it be kept moving along at a swift rate it is likely to be caught by the frost. Topping is done just as the blossom is forming, and suckering and worming keep the farmer busy till time for harvest. "Wisconsin Tobacco Reporter, July 24, 1885. 168
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