56 



TOBACCO BREEDING. 



and all small leaves should be carefully removed. The accompanying 

 illustration, figure 6, shows the earliest flowers just ready to open, 

 which indicates the right stage of development for bagging. After 

 the flower head has been carefully prepared, as indicated, the bag 

 should be inverted, placed over the flower head, the mouth gathered 

 closely around the stem just below the flower branches and tied 

 loosely enough to allow sufficient room for further growth, as shown 

 in fio-ure 7. At this stage of the plant's development the flowers 

 bloom rapidly, and a corresponding rapidity of growth takes place 

 in the flower head. This condition makes it necessary to visit the 



bagged plants in the course of five 

 or six days in order to take the 

 bags off and remove all superfluous 

 growth in the nature of small 

 leaves, so as to give as much room 

 as possible for the development of 

 the flowers. The bag must be re- 

 placed immediately, before insects 

 have an opportunity to visit the 

 flowers and transfer pollen. This 

 process should be repeated two or 

 three times during the season and 

 the bag elevated each time in order 

 to allow for the rapid growth of 

 the stem. 



After a sufficient number of pods 

 have set seed to produce the normal 

 quantity of seed, the bag may be re- 

 moved to prevent any possibility of 

 mold during continued periods of 

 rainy weather. When this is done 

 all late buds and flowers must be 

 broken off, leaving only the pods 

 which have been fertilized to pro- 

 duce seed. It is also desirable to 

 remove all seed pods which are poorly developed, in order to eliminate 

 some of the seed which is likely to be light and undesirable. 



When all the pods are mature the plants are cut in the ordinary 

 way and hung to dry in a barn or other place having a free circula- 

 tion of air. In order to catch the seed of pods which open during 

 the process of drying, it is customary to put new bags over the seed 

 heads at the time the plants are cut. Thoroly dry seed may be 

 shelled and stored in glass vials or bottles with perfect safety, and 

 can be kept almost indefinitely in this way. The fully matured 



96 



Fig. 7.— Tobacco seed plant showing arrange- 

 ment of a paper bag for the protection of 

 the flowers from cross-fertilization. At this 

 stage of development a tobacco plant in- 

 creases in length very rapidly; conse- 

 quently, the bag should be tied loosely so 

 that it can be easily pushed up the stalk. 



