l80 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



There is no doubt that tobacco has improved in all essen- 

 tials in the last few years, in spite of the constant reitera- 

 tion that " We don't raise as good tobacco as we used to years 

 ago." The fact is the market did not at that time make the 

 demands on us that it does now. Forty or fifty years ago, 

 when farmers were delivering their crop in a one-horse wagon 

 load, and the stripper made but two kinds, holding the princi- 

 pal leaves in their hand as wrappers and dropping a few bottom 

 leaves as fillers, taking the longest leaf in the bunch to tie 

 the band, making only two kinds, does any one suppose that the 

 leaf of those days would go now ? What would the growers of 

 i860 think of making 15 or 20 kinds and sizes? At this time 

 there was a great cry made that it would not last, that the 

 farmers would soon overdo the business of tobacco growing. 

 Now it has increased a hundred fold, and still there is room. 

 It is a mistake to think that all the land suitable for tobacco 

 has been taken up. There are still many lands, sections, and 

 parcels of land, still covered with a forest growth, that are yet 

 to become good tobacco soils. 



To properly describe the various ways of sorting and cur- 

 ing a crop of tobacco, as manipulated today, would take a 

 volume of itself. Suffice to say a good crop will always sell 

 without being assorted. Growers make no money sorting. 

 This is only done from necessity. Many farmers are not aware 

 that the bundle prices have averaged the best. 



Keep tobacco as clean of rubbish as you can when stripping, 

 and it will shrink ten per cent, in sorting before it is de- 

 livered. 



The bright outlook for the cultivation of tobacco in Con- 

 necticut applies not only to the next succeeding crop but many 

 more to come also. 



The President. The secretary informs me that he has been 

 able to secure the attendance of Mr. A. D. Shamel, of the 

 bureau of plant industry at Washington, who will address us 

 now, after which we will have some music, and then a general 

 discussion on this matter of tobacco culture will follow. 



