38 TOBACCO BEEEDING. 



Another fact of importance in this regard is the likelihood of 

 late-maturing varieties being injured in the field by autumnal storms. 

 The earlier the crops can be harvested, the less is the probability 

 of injury by severe rain, wind, or hail storms. In one district of 

 the Connecticut Valley in the season of 1905 a severe hailstorm at 

 about the usual time of harvest completely destroyed all except the 

 early-maturing tobacco, which had been harvested and hung in the 

 curing sheds. This experience is common to other northern tobacco 

 regions and emphasizes the value of early-maturing varieties. 



The uniformity in time of maturing of the individual plants in 

 the fields is an important practical matter. In those districts where 

 the tobacco crop is harvested by cutting off the plants near the 

 ground all of the plants in a given section of the field must be cut 

 off at one time. The immature plants can not be left to ripen and 

 the early-maturing plants can not be harvested before the rest of 

 the plants in the field. Overripe or underripe tobacco is likely to 

 be of poor quality. In cigar-wrapper varieties the overripe leaves 

 lack elasticity, gloss, and strength. The underripe leaves are likely 

 to have uneven color and are susceptible to injury by various fun- 

 gous and bacterial diseases. It is very important, therefore, that the 

 individual plants in the field ripen uniformly, so that they can be 

 harvested at one time without loss or injury. 



The lack of uniformity in the maturity of leaves borne at the base, 

 middle, and top of the plants is a cause of loss in value of the crop to 

 the growers. As a rule the bottom or so-called " sand " leaves ripen 

 first, the middle leaves next, and the top leaves last. In the varieties 

 of cigar-wrapper or smoking tobaccos, especially where the entire 

 plant is harvested at one time, the overripe sand leaves and the im- 

 mature top leaves on such variable plants are inferior in value to the 

 middle leaves. As stated, the color of these sand and top leaves is 

 usually poor and undesirable, and there is also generally a corre- 

 sponding inferiority in the texture and quality of these leaves. A 

 careful study of the plants in tobacco fields at the time of the harvest 

 has shown that inflividual plants bearing leaves that ripen uniformly 

 from the bottom to the top of the plants can be found. In the experi- 

 ments with the production of improved types of Connecticut Sumatra 

 and Connecticut Cuban tobacco it was found that by selecting these 

 uniformly ripening plants and saving the seed under bag uniform 

 strains of these varieties could be produced. 



The common practise of harvesting these varieties is to prime or 

 pick off the lower ripe leaves first ; then a few days later prime the 

 middle leaves, and finally harvest the top leaves. In the case of the 

 improved strains selected with the ol)ject of obtaining uniformly 

 maturing plants practically all of the leaves can be primed at one 



96 



