36 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



under good manurial conditions and thrifty because it is well 

 manured. As the result of the Department's work, coupled 

 with the work of the experiment station at New Haven — 

 and your experiment station has been cooperating by furnish- 

 ing funds and furnishing intelligence to run the work with — 

 as the result of this work it has been settled that the way for 

 the Connecticut tobacco grower today, as well as the growers 

 of all other states, is to select a plant here and there through- 

 out the field that is giving the best yield and the best growth, 

 and to take the seed from those plants. By so doing he wall 

 be able to get a better yield and a better product. Our ex- 

 perts, however, have gone a little further. They found out 

 that there was danger, owing to the fact that the seed of these 

 selected plants were cross-fertilized, and they found out that 

 if the seed from such plants became cross-fertilized it made 

 plants raised from such seed variable. As the result of that, 

 w^e have advocated that when such plants had been selected 

 for seed that a bag should be placed over the blossoms to 

 prevent cross-fertilization. This can be done by using a cheap 

 manila paper bag which can be obtained at most any grocery 

 store. By drawing that down over the seed head it prevents 

 the admission of insects so that there will be no cross-fertiliza- 

 tion. That policy has been pursued, has been put into opera- 

 tion by the tobacco growers, and I am glad to say with good 

 results. I drove up and down the Connecticut Valley this 

 last summer for a considerable distance, and could see the bags 

 here and there all along the road. Sometimes I came across 

 men who seemed to be a little bit doubtful. They did not 

 know whether that would work out or not. and so they placed 

 the bags upon seed heads that were hidden away from the 

 road, but you could look over behind the hills and see the 

 patches of tobacco occasionally with the bags upon them. 

 I think that practically every man that has adopted this 

 method and pursued it intelligently this year will testify to the 

 good results that have been obtained. Why? Why gentle- 

 men, this is not a theoretical matter. It is a practical fact. 

 These are things that you can see just as plainly as I can 

 see. They are results which can be accomplished by following 

 advanced methods. 



Some other very interesting things have been developed 

 in the course of our work with the tobacco plant. For in- 



