BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 435 



The tobacco work has been extended into the Clinton-Lyconiin;^ 

 district, where present methods of tobacco production are poorly 

 developed with respect to the use of hibor-saving machinery, methods 

 of fertilizing the crop, suckering, harvesting, etc. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN MANUFACTURING AND EXPORT TOBACCO DISTRICTS. 



Work in Maryland and Virginia. — The new types of tobacco 

 recentl)^ developed and distributed in Marjdand are becoming very 

 popular Avith the growers, being decidedly more productive than the 

 ordinary types. A third new type, which gives promise of out- 

 yielding any of those previously produced, is being fully tested this 

 year. The fertilizer and crop-rotation experiments have been con- 

 tinued. The most striking feature of these tests has been the marked 

 response of the tobacco soils to an increase in the humus supply, 

 more particularly the increase in yield as a result of liming the soil 

 and growing crimson clover as a cover crop. Tests of short sys- 

 tems of rotation specially adapted to the choice tobacco lands have 

 been taken up. In Virginia the more important lines of work, which 

 have been in progress during the past few years, are now nearing 

 completion. The work at the local stations in each of the three 

 principal tobacco districts has been liberally supported by a special 

 State appropriation and has been eminently successful in inducing 

 many farmeis to adopt more intensive systems, better methods of 

 fertilizing the tobacco crop, and systematic rotation of crops. 



Work in Kentucky. — A special feature of the Avork in Kentucky 

 has been a systematic test of nearly all the standard varieties of 

 tobacco in the Burley district and in the Hopkinsville district, and 

 seed from pure strains of the best varieties will be available for dis- 

 tribution next year. Experiments in curing Burley tobacco with 

 artificial heat are being inaugurated this year. The fertilizer tests 

 at Hopkinsville have been continued, and good progress is being 

 made in working out the fertilizer requirements of the tobacco crop 

 in that section. 



Work in North Carolina and South Carolina. — Experiments 

 are in progress at Reidsville, Oxford, and Greenville, N. C., and at 

 Timmonsville and Manning, S. C. The work at these stations in- 

 cludes the production of improved varieties and strains by breeding 

 and selections, fertilizer and crop-rotation tests, and demonstrations 

 and experiments in improved methods of flue curing. Special atten- 

 tion is being given to the problem of increasing present yields of 

 bright flue-cured tobacco without impairing the quality. Undoubt- 

 edly the key to the situiition lies in increasing the humus sup])ly in 

 these run-down soils, but the matter is conq)licated by the fact that 

 legumes grown in rotation with tobacco tend to injure the quality 

 of the leaf. 



PLANS FOR FUTURE WORK. 



The more general features of the work already outlined are of 

 such a nature as to rc^iuire several years for tiieir completion, and it 

 is planned to continue the investigations along essentially the same 

 lines. The principal features of the work in Virginia will be closed 

 up at the end of the present fiscal year, in order that funds may be 



