273 



Calculating on the wood-work to last for 5 years, putting on 

 new cloth each year, cultivation and curing. 

 No. I estimate, cost per lb. 2/2^. 

 No. 2 estimate, cost per lb. 2/of . 

 No. 3 estimate, cost per lb. 2/of . 

 No. 4 estimate, cost per lb. 2/0^. 

 SHADE-GROWN TOBACCO IN UNITED STATES AND CUBA, AND 



TOBACCO IN SUMATRA. 



Frotn Messrs. Amory, Browne & Co., New York, to Director of Public 

 Gardens, and Plantations, Jamaica. 



29 Thomas Street, P.O. Box, 690. 



August, 31st 1904. 



Dear Sir, 



The writer has been requested by Mr. R. W. Lees, to write you 

 with regard to the comparative yields per acre between tobacco 

 grown in the sun and tobacco grown under cloth in the respective 

 cigar leaf districts. 



In reply I would say that I should be glad to assist you in any 

 possible way to get at such exact information as you may desire, 

 and shall in this letter only discuss the question in general terms. 



It may be laid down in a general way that the culture of tobacco 

 under cloth makes a greater yield than sun grown in the southern 

 tobacco districts, and makes a smaller yield per acre than the sun 

 grown in the northern districts. This is due in the north to the 

 fact that different varieties of tobacco, of less yield, are preferred 

 for use under cloth, the product being much finer than the outdoor 

 types that are common in these regions. In Connecticut, for in- 

 stance, the outdoor tobaccos, called Connecticut Havana seed and 

 Connecticut broadleaf, produce from 1,600 to 2,000 pounds per 

 acre, while Sumatra and Cuban seed, which are there preferred for 

 planting under cloth, do not yield more than from 800 to 1,100 for 

 Cuban and from 1,000 to 1,350 for Sumatra. This deficiency in 

 weight is made up by the thinness and fine quality of the leaf, as 

 compared with the sun-grown. 



It is due to say, however, that where the outdoor-grown seed of 

 Connecticut tobaccos (Havana seed and broadleaf) is grown in 

 Connecticut under cloth, the yield per acre is usually reduced from 

 1,600 to 2,000 to 1,250 to 1,600 owing to the fact that the leaf is 

 thinner. The capacity for covering cigars, by the pound of leaf, 

 is, however, increased. These native tobaccos have not, as yet, 

 been largly grown under cloth in Connecticut, the smaller-leafed 

 types of Sumatra and Cuban being preferred. 



Perhaps the best comparison in Connecticut as to respective 

 weights is shown in the case of Sumatra tobacco : small plots of 

 this have been planted in the sun, near the cloth-covered field, 

 and the yield per acre in the sun is much less than that under 

 cloth, the plants not getting anything like the growth that those 

 under cloth attain. 



In Florida the acreage of sun-grown is decreasing, so that it is 



