16 THE PLANT WORLD 



best possible way of helping the Society. Samples of The Plant 

 World will be furnished, if desired, so that you can exhibit the maga- 

 zine to your friends as an added inducement for them to enroll. 



The addresses of the officers and a concise statement of the objects 

 of the Society will be found in this and subsequent issues of The Plant 

 World, for reference when needed. 



The annual report of the Secretary of Agriculture contains some in- 

 teresting information in regard to American-grown commodities, such as 

 tea and tobacco. 



The work on the growing of American tea was continued during the 

 year at Pinehurst, near Summerville, South Carolina, in co-operation with 

 Dr. Shepard. There are now about one hundred acres in tea gardens. 

 The 3'ield of tea in these gardens last year was about 4,500 pounds, and 

 this year will be about 9,000 pounds of marketable tea. During the year 

 careful attention was given to reducing the cost of the production of tea, 

 with very satisfactory results. A tea farm will be established in Texas 

 if suitable land and co-operation can be secured. 



The commercial success of tlie .shade-grown Sumatra tobacco in the 

 Connecticut valley has now been fulh^ assured, and the plan adopted by 

 which last year's crop, after being carefully cured and sorted under the 

 direction of the Department's experts, was catalogued and offered for sale 

 at public auction under the supervision of the committee of tobacco 

 brokers, with Hon. E. Stevens Henry, M. C. as chairman, proved highly 

 satisfactory. Much credit is due the members of the committee for the 

 time and expense they personally contributed in the interest of this in- 

 vestigation. The ordinar>^ tobacco grown in the open fields in Connec- 

 ticut brings from 18 to 20 cents a pound. The average price paid for 

 the shade-grown tobacco was $1.20 a pound. The cost of this tobacco, 

 baled and ready for market, averaged 51/^ cents a pound. The net profit 

 per acre on the best crop raised, on a lot of about six acres, exceeded 

 $1,000 per acre. The reports from cigar manufacturers show that the 

 leaf of this Connecticut-grown Sumatra tobacco has successfully stood 

 the test of manufacture. At the present time the Department is advising 

 and instructing thirty-eight growers in Connecticut and Massachusetts 

 cultivating 645 acres of shade tobacco. It may be said of this line of 

 Department work that it has demonstrated our ability to produce a leaf 

 for which about six millions of dollars have annually been paid to foreign 

 countries. 



