LIV REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. 



promises to be of great value in the investigations which it is planned 

 soon to take up of the export types from Virginia, North C'arolina, 

 Kentuck}', and Tennessee. 



Upon the return to this country of our tobacco expert, Mr. Floyd, 

 active steps were taken to start some investigations on the improve- 

 ment of the Pennsylvania leaf, with the object of seeing what could 

 be done with it, and the further object of introducing a more desirable 

 tiller leaf, if such a step seemed necessary for the building up of the 

 trade in Pennsylvania tobacco. A soil survey had been made of the 

 principal tobacco districts of Lancaster County as a basis for the pos- 

 si))le introduction of new varieties. In the preliminary work of manip- 

 ulating the present type of leaf g-rown in Lancaster County a different 

 method of fermentation was tried, in which the tobacco is fermented 

 in bulk, according- to the practice in Cuba and Florida, which had been 

 successfully used on the Connecticut leaf the year before. 



Fermentation by this process is completed within forty or fifty days, 

 under the constant supervision of an attendant, who turns the bidk 

 from time to time, thus making it possible to watch the progress of the 

 fermentation and to modify the conditions if circumstances seem to 

 require it. This is a decided gain in point of time, and is much less 

 expensive in the way of storage and ijisurance risks than the old method 

 of case fermentation, where the tobacco was set aside for from six to 

 nine months in a tightly packed case, in which it was doubtful whether 

 it would escape injury })y black rot. 



The first experiment was made on an old crop which had not fer- 

 mented by the usual case method, but which had developed a consid- 

 erable amount of black rot. Bulk fermentation proved perfectly 

 successful, the quality of the leaf being greatly improved and no 

 further development of the black rot appearing while the tobacco was 

 in bulk or afterwards. The results of this experiment seemed to be 

 of such marked value that several of the leading packers of Lancaster 

 opened their warehouses to us and installed, at considerable expense, 

 proper facilities for handling the crop. As a result of this, during the 

 winter and spring of 1901 over 1:,U00,000 pounds of tobacco were fer- 

 mented in bulk under our direction, with a total loss of only 35 pounds 

 from black rot and all other damage. This is exclusive of one of the 

 first bulks, which was almost entirely destroyed by black rot, as the 

 conditions for handling the crop were not tlioroughly understood. 

 It is a difficult matter to give any close estimate of the usual damage 

 from black rot, as the dealers hesitate very often before admitting 

 that there is any at all; but a conservative estimate would show a loss 

 of ^500,000 or more per j^ear in the Pennsylvania crop, and in some 

 years it must considerably exceed this figure. The success of this 

 method of fermenting the tobacco, both in improving the qualit}^ of 

 the leaf, which is generall}^ conceded, and in controlling the dreaded 



