SELECTION OF SEED PLANTS. 45 



usually the practise of the best gro\YerH to save portions of one or 

 more rows producing the best j^lants, but frequently even this care is 

 not given to this most important factor of tobacco growing. On the 

 large tobacco plantations the writers have frequently observed a sec- 

 tion of the field set apart for seed ])roducti()n. In some cases the 

 poorest plants in such sections have been topt, while in others this 

 practise has not been followed. This method of selecting seed plants 

 is not as desirable as that emi:)loyed in saving seed in most farm crops. 

 It means that the growers do not take advantage of the variability of 

 the individual tobacco plants in the field, and consequently lose the 

 benefits to be derived from using the best plants as the parents for 

 the next year's crop. After carefully studying the ])lants in hundreds 

 of tobacco fields, the writers have found that the best plants do not 

 grow in groups, but in different parts of the field, and can only be 

 found by diligent search and careful observation of the crop, plant 

 by plant, from the time the plants are set out in the field until they are 

 topt. As soon as the benefits to be derived from seed selection and 

 breeding have been demonstrated in tobacco-growing communities 

 the growers are usually quick to take advantage of the improved 

 methods of saving seed. 



It has been frequently urged that change of seed is beneficial. In 

 the light of recent investigations and observations on this subject 

 this contention is believed to be incorrect in the case of tobacco. In 

 other words, seed should be saved on the farm or field where the crop 

 is to be grown. A change of seed is always experimental, and, as 

 pointed out in the discussion of the introduction and acclimatization 

 of new varieties, such change when necessary should be made only 

 after carefully testing the seed for several years and securing by 

 selection a strain which is adapted to the local soil and climatic 

 conditions. In some tobacco-growing sections growers frequently 

 buy their seed or obtain it from some other source than their own 

 crop. While it may be true that this practise may be advisable in 

 some cases — for example, A^hen the seed is procured from tobacco-seed 

 breeders having the same general soil and climatic conditions as the 

 growers — this plan is not a good one to follow as a regular source of 

 seed and is not practised by the most successful tobacco growers. , The 

 experience of the best growers and of scientific investigators of 

 tobacco, as in the case of other farm crops, such as corn and cotton, 

 goes to prove that the best policy is for every grower to save his own 

 seed from the best plants in his crop. Instead of the varieties of 

 tobacco running out by reason of having been grown under the same 

 conditions continuously, it has been demonstrated that they are 

 improved by the adoption of simple and practical methods for the 

 selection of seed plants and the saving of seed. 

 96 • 



