50 The Bulletin. 



experiments with tobacco seedings has pi'oven this to be so in fact, and it is 

 not mere theory. 



A simple and satisfactory apparatus has been devised for separating the 

 light from .the heavy seed in a rapid and inexpensive manner, and has been 

 placed on the market by Queen & Co., of Philadelphia. It consists of an 

 ordinary chemical foot-bellows and a glass tube about five feet long. A 

 wire screen of very fine mesh is inserted near the bottom of the glass tube, 

 and about an ounce of seed at a time is placed thereon. A blast of air of 

 appropriate strength is then forced up through the tube, the lighter seeds be- 

 ing blown out at the top. 



IXIMATIKE SEEDS. 



It is important, also, not to sow any very immature or undeveloped seeds. 

 They will give a weak plant, that will tend to blossom out prematurely be- 

 fore the plant has set a sufficient number of leaves to give a satisfactory 

 yield. By the simple expedient of picking off and discarding all undeveloped 

 seed-pods at the time when the seed-heads are harvested the danger from 

 immature seeds will be obviated. It ought always to be done. 



SAVING SEED UNDEB BAG. 



The development of seeds is dependent upon the union of the male and fe- 

 male element of the flower. In some plants — as wheat, for example — this 

 normally takes place within the same flower, with no crossing whatever from 

 one flower to another, either on the same or different plants. In others the 

 fertilization is always from one flower to another, either upon the same or 

 different plants. There are yet other classes of plants in which either self- 

 fertilization or cross-fertilization may readily take place, although there will 

 usually be a tendency in favor of one way or the other, according to which 

 seems to be most natural and for the best interests of the plant. 



Tobacco comes imder this third category, and, while the flowers are 

 abimdantly self-fertile — are, indeed, as a matter of observation, most fre- 

 quently self-fertile — they may, however, be readily cross-fertilized by arti- 

 ficial or natural interference, and under ordinary conditions there is consider- 

 able of this cross-fertilization accomplished. The tobacco flower at maturity 

 secretes at the bottom of its flower tube a sweetish substance. Bees or other 

 insects pass in and out to secure this secretion, and, in doing so, rub against the 

 anthers and get some of the pollen grains on their bodies. In passing into 

 another flower this pollen mliy be rubbed from their bodies onto the ripe and 

 sticky stigma, and cross-fertilization takes place. It has been verified by ex- 

 perience that self-fertilized tobacco seed, being, as it seems, the most natural 

 way for the fertilization of its flowers to take place, possesses as great, if 

 not greater, vigor than does cross-fertilized seed. 



Much of the tendency for plants to deteriorate or "run out," as it is called, 

 is, no doubt, due to undesirable cross-fertilization. Although seed may be 

 saved from a plant of good quality, it should be taken into account that it 

 is only the mother plant, and that the male parent may have been a plant of 

 much inferior quality. The uncertain quality of the seed produced from such 

 a union is very obvious. Taking advantage, however, of the naturally self- 

 fertile character of a tobacco flower, the tendency to run out from this cause 

 may be entirely done away with. 



By placing an ordinary twelve-pound manila-paper bag over the flower head 

 just before the flowers begin to open all danger of injurious cross-pollination 

 will be prevented. All the lateral flower shoots should be removed before 

 bagging, leaving only the central cluster ; and if any flowers should have 

 chanced to open already, they should lilvewiso be removed before the bag 

 is applied. It will be necessary to raise the bag up the stnlk everj' few days 

 at first, while the head is growing rapidly, in order to give it room. 



HOME-GROWN SEED IS REST. 



Tobacco, in common with nearly all plants, possesses the latent faculty, 

 within certain rather wide limits, of modifying and adajiting itself to the 

 eireumstnnces of soil, climate, etc., in which it finds itself. If a strain of 



