The Bulletin. 49 



Seeing the need of reaching in a more personal way farmers, on their own 

 farms, than is done in tlie test farm or Farmers Institute woriv, and carrying 

 better methods to the farms, the Board autliorized the employment of a 

 special worker to conduct co-operative experiments. The services of Mr. 

 T. B. I'arker have been secured for this, and the work will include experi- 

 ments with the various farm, truck and fruit crops, the testing of varieties, of 

 fertilizers, culture methods, etc. « 



METHODS OF SEED SAVING AND SELECTION AS FAC- 

 • TOES IN THE IMPROVEMENT OF TOBACCO. 



By E. H. MATHEWSON, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



It is apparent to all thoughtful people that we are living in an age of 

 rapidly changing economic conditions. So rapidly is the advancement of 

 science, invention and mechanics that the methods and processes of one decade 

 are almost sure to be obsolete in the next. More advancement has been made 

 during the hvst century in the development of scientific and mechanical in- 

 dustries than in, perhaps, the whole prior history of the world put together. 

 At .no time, in this wonderful century of progress, has development gone on 

 at a greater rate than it is to-day. 



It is not in the mechanical industries alone that marked progress is being 

 made. Agriculture herself, ponderous and slow-moving though she must of 

 necessity be, is moving forward at a faster rate than ever before. Science 

 is not working alone for the furtherance of the mechanic arts aiid manufactur- 

 ers. Our own great nation, for the advancement of its enormous agricultural 

 interests, employs several thousand scientists, specialists and other workers, 

 all laboring for the advancement of agriculture, and at an expense now 

 amounting to some seven millions of dollars annually. Each of the individual 

 States likewise, working in a measure independently, is also making great 

 efforts and large expenditures for this same purpose. 



The amount of systematic knowledge, already very large in its extent, is 

 piling up for the benefit of the farmers of this comitry at an almost in- 

 ch-edible rate. The greatest problem of all in connection with this work 

 is how to get this mass of information into the farmers' hands, and get them 

 to profit by it. 



That is why I am here to-day. The great National Department of Agricul- 

 ture, laboring and eager as it is to help farmers everywhere, sends me here 

 for the purpose of putting before you tobacco-growers in a specific way some 

 of the information which has been accumulated, at no little expense, for the 

 improvement and increased profit of your industry. 



We have something for you to-day which, in all modesty, we think is well 

 worth your attention, and will be the means of adding to the profits from 

 your tobacco-growing, with but little, if any, additional expense. I refer to 

 the possibilities of increasing the yield and quality of the product by means 

 of more systematic and more scientific methods of seed-saving. Enough care- 

 ful experimental work in this line has already been done — notably by Mr. 

 Shamel, in Connecticut — to show conclusively that very much more than you 

 might expect can be done for the enhancement of your profits by more in- 

 telligent attention to so simple and inexpensive a matter as the selecting 

 and saving of seed. 



LIGHT vs. HEAVY SEED. 



Take, for example, so small a matter as the lightness or heaviness of the 

 seeds which you sow. Tobacco seeds are very small, and the amount of 

 plant-food materials stoi'ed therein for the use of the young plantlets is at 

 best very little in amount. The heaviest seeds, with their greater food supply, 

 will give the young plants a much better and a more uniform start than will 

 the light seeds, and they will be ready to set some days earlier. Careful 



