34 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



which would be substantially better than that which is more 

 commonly grown. The experts of the Department took this 

 up, crossed these two varieties of cotton and began to work 

 towards the idea of producing a better species. That work 

 has been nearly completed. It has reached a conclusion in 

 certain lines this year, and we are sending out to the growers 

 in the South a staple which instead of being less than ah inch 

 runs up from an inch to an inch and a half, but much longer 

 than the ordinary grade, and which, of course, is worth more 

 in the market because it will produce a better grade of goods. 



Now in the same way we undertook the improvement of 

 the tobacco crop. Many of you gentlemen are interested in 

 that line of work. In the case of tobacco we believe we have 

 alreadv done something: for the industry, and that we can do 

 a good deal more. Our experts in studying this matter found, 

 in the first place, that a point of great value to the grower was 

 to separate his seed so as to use only the heavy seed. Well, 

 you say, those of you who are familiar with the subject, how 

 can that be done ? The seed is so small that we can hardly see 

 it any way. Well, that was the difficulty, but we found that by 

 separating this seed and using only the heavy seed, we got a 

 better yield, a better plant, and a more imiform plant. Of 

 course, as I say, the difficulty was to separate the seed. One 

 of our experts went to work and perfected a machine for 

 separating the seed, patented the machine in the name of the 

 government, so that any one of you could use it or make it 

 without danger. Now if there is a tobacco grower here I 

 think he has heard of that machine and of the results which 

 cam.e from the separation of the seed. That discovery in itself 

 has been doing a good deal of good for the tobacco growers 

 here in Connecticut, in Kentucky, and in Ohio. 



Another thing. One of the greatest losses to the tobacco 

 grower is from the fact that the crop is not uniform. When 

 the shade industry was taken up in Connecticut a few years 

 ago, and the effort made to grow Sumatra tobacco in the 

 shade, it is probable as to that industry, if it can be said to 

 have failed, it failed because of the variability of the product 

 grown more than for any other reason. When we bring seed 

 from any foreign country and plant it here for the first time 

 we usually find that the plants produced are variable. We can 

 correct that by breeding. If you want a certain type of Suma- 



