48 SCIENTIFIC REPORTS OF THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH 



Tobacco Development Company who give out the seed to 

 any one who applies for it. There is no obligation on the. 

 part of any ryot taking this seed to sell the produce to the 

 Company. Mr. Acree, the Manager of the Dalsing-Sarai 

 Branch, reports (Letter, dated April 13th, 1918) that the 

 advantages obtained by the growers of Pusa seed can be 

 summed up as follows : — 



(a) Nearly all the seeds germinate. 



(b) When transplanted, the tobacco plants are nearly 



all the same size and are equally strong. In 

 consequence, very little replacement is necessary 

 in the fields and partly for this reason a larger 

 yield per bigha is obtained. 



(c) At harvest time, the whole field is ripe and ready 



to cut at once. As a rule, when the ryot uses 

 his own seed, several varieties are found in 

 each field which come to maturity at different 

 times and so cause the harvesting period to 

 extend over four to six weeks. When this 

 tobacco is ready for sale, the ryot has three or 

 four sorts to dispose of instead of one uniform 

 lot. 



(d) Type 28 has not only been found very good for 



cigarette purposes but the growers also find no 

 difficulty in disposing of it to the Indian dealers. 



These results are interesting as showing that even the 

 conservative tobacco grower, if given time, is able to 

 appreciate the advantages of growing a pure line (which 

 combines yield and quality) in place of the ordinary mixed 

 crop. At first, the Company had some difficulty in getting 

 the work started and the growers were averse to trying the 

 new kind. Now all this is changed and should the demand 

 go on increasing at the present rate, the difficulty will be 

 to provide sufficient seed. 



In Burma, seed for 800 acres has been supplied to 

 Mr. McKerral for distribution in two of the most import- 

 ant tobacco-growing Districts. 



