52 The Bulletin. 



that is, the stamens are removed just before maturity, and a small pa- 

 per sack is plated over each emasculated tlower to prevent undesired acci- 

 dental cross-poUiuation. When the stigma is in a mature and receptive 

 condition, pollen from the male parent is applied by rubbing the ripe anther 

 on the sticky stigma. The aim in this method is to so combine certain of the 

 qualities of each parent as to secure an offspring of better quality as a whole 

 than is possessed by any plants already in existence. In all probability there 

 will be a variety of forms resulting from a cross of this kind ; and then, by 

 careful selection from among the variants, followed again, perhaps, by re- 

 newed crossing and selection, the results hoped for and planned on will be, 

 perhaps, at last obtained. There is a most inviting field here for the experi- 

 enced breeder ; but, as a general proposition, more prompt and satisfactory 

 results may be looked for from the method of pure selection. 



IMPKOVEMENT BY SELECTION. 



The ultimate hope for success by this method is based upon the certainty 

 of finding differences among individual plants. Some are surely more effici- 

 ent than others in making money for the farmer. In some cases plants of such 

 very marked superiority are occasionally to be found as to stand out as dis- 

 tinctly new varieties. Mr. Shamel, in his work in Connecticut, after close 

 observation throughout a forty acre field containing upwards of 500,000 plants 

 of Sumatra tobacco, found 28 plants of such marked superiority over any of 

 the other plants of the field as to really constitute a new variety of unusual 

 merit. After only three years' work, with these twenty-eight plants as a 

 basis, he has succeeded in working out and establishing a variety of wrapper 

 tobacco of Sumatra type which has great yielding power, together with re- 

 markable uniformity and very superior commercial qualities. 



In making observations through a large number of tobacco fields in Mary- 

 land, Mr. Coley found a single plant differing remarkably, without apparent 

 cause, in the vigor of its growth and the number of leaves it bore. Instead 

 of the usual twenty-five or thirty leaves borne by all the other normally good 

 plants, this specimen had one hundred and four leaves, of broad, dark green, 

 vigorous growth. The leaves were placed extremely close together on the 

 stalk, so that this plant, with its hundred leaves, was but little taller than the 

 ordinary plants, with twenty-five or thirty leaves. The seed of this plant was 

 saved and when planted, the succeeding year, it was found that every plant 

 of it followed after the general peculiarities of the parent plant. 



Work is being done in Maryland on that strain now ; but it is as yet too 

 soon to say what its ultimate commercial value will be. It will certainly be 

 a great yielder in pounds, and, so far as appearances go, the type of the leaf 

 seems to be good. 



I mention these cases to show the great possibilities occasionally lurking 

 around, but usually lost for the sake of someone to recognize their value for 

 breeding purposes. Similarly, no doubt, you growers of bright tobacco have 

 every year scattered through your fields an occasional plant of vmusual 

 superiority, differing, perhaps, in its vigor of growth, or in its tendency to ri])en 

 or yellow more uniformly, or a natural toughness and thickness of leaf, or in 

 having finer texture and fibers, or perhaps in some other desirable quality. 

 Even if such plants are recognized and saved for seed, their superior points 

 are pretty crt'tainly impaired or soon lost altogether by cross-fertilization with 

 inferior plants. Saving the seed under bag would have saved them entirely 

 free from danger of deterioration in this way, and then, if followed up by 

 reiieatod careful selection of the progeny, perhaps a new variety of greatly 

 increased profitableness might have resulted. 



Suppose now an experienced breeder were to enter a section with the aim 

 of improving by selective methods the strain or type of tobacco being grown 

 there. His procedure would l)e somewhat as follows: All through the growing 

 season he would pass up and down through many tobacco-fields, closely 

 scrutinizing and measuring each plant with his experienced eye, for the pur- 

 pose of finding some plant of unusual qualit.v or vigor. He is sure to find one 

 here and there amongst many thousands, perhaps. He tags it, gives it a num- 

 ber, and enters a few notes in his field book describing the important points 



