JAMMCA. 



LIBRARY 



BXJLTjBTIN NEWYORk 



EOTANfCAL 

 OF THE GARDEN 



DEPARTMENT OF AliRIOULTURE, 



Vol. II. DECEMBER. 1904. Part 12. 



THE TOBACCO OF JAMAICA. 



CIGAR LEAF WRAPPER AT HOPE GARDENS. 



Extract from Annual Report of Director for year ended 31st March, 1904. 



For the purpose of testing the possibility of producing in 

 Jamaica the expensive imported wrapper tobacco, experiments 

 have been conducted witli Sumatra tobacco under tent cloth on 

 the lines practised in the Connecticut valley in America. A 

 quarter of an acre was laid out on a site occupied by Havana 

 tobacco last year, the tent being erected over two distinct kinds 

 of soil ; one half a very heavy black soil and the other the result 

 of an outcrop of sandy loam or gritty loam. The plants grew 

 equally well upon both soils, reaching a height of 9 feet in 49 days 

 after planting. 



The results of the experiment to date show that a very fine 

 grade of wrapper can be grown in Jamaica, equal, if not superior 

 to that imported from America, but to insure correct curing, the 

 crop must be grown in a locality a great deal more humid than 

 Hope. The leaves should take from 16 to 20 days to dry, turning 

 yellow first at the tip and upwards to the midrib, closely fol- 

 lowed by the brown ; whereas at Hope, some of the pickings dried 

 in two days, the leaves remaining a green colour. Mr. T.J. Harris 

 thinks that it is safe to advocate the cultivation of this valuable 

 crop only in such districts as Upper Clarendon and Temple Hall. 



Sumatra tobacco should be grown in the ordinary tobacco 

 season — August and September to March and April ; at Hope the 

 seeds were sown at the end of August in seed boxes under shade 

 the seedlings planted out under the tent from the middle to the 

 end of October ; were weeded and moulded middle of November, 

 and the first ripe leaves picked on the 1 2th of December — three 



