STIMULANT, AROMATIC, NARCOTIC AND MEDICINAI, PLANTS 1 789 



caused by the wholesale loss of the young ]jlants of the variety Burley, 

 which was grown there at that time, and Salento was more successfirl than 

 any of the other Italian hybrids. vSalento shows the characters of both its 

 parents. It is very vigorous, fairly early, and very adaptable as to soil and 

 climate, it stands drought well, is very resistant to Thielavia, and is hardly 

 at all susceptible to rust a nd oidium. Commercially it is inferior to Kentucky, 

 chiefly on account of its percentage of large veins, but, under the conditions 

 in which it is grown in the Benevento region it becomes much finer and 

 resembles Seedleaf rather than Kentucky. In the Italian industry it has 

 no equal as a substitute for Kentucky. 



The average production of the Benevento Gardens was 13 19 lbs. per 

 acre when Bresil tobacco was grown ; the yield fell to 1167 lbs. with Ken- 

 tucky and to 972 lbs. wth Burley ; in 1914 it rose to 2050 lbs. with Sa- 

 lento. 



As cigar tobacco Salento is onl}" grown in the region of Benevento ; 

 when it is planted elsewhere it easil}' loses its fine qualities. 



To siwn up, several new Italian varieties have been produced which 

 are more or less resistant to root rot. The cliief characters of these new 

 varieties are as follows : 



i) Most, of them resemble Kentucky in their botanical and commercial 

 characters but they are more resistant to Thielavia. 



2) The less closely the hybrid resembles its parent Kentucky the 

 farther removed is the product from the hea\-y type of tobacco. The first 

 character to disappear is the compactness of the tissues, a quality which 

 seems to be determined more by the environment then by anything else 

 as in the Italian Kentucky the tissue is less compact than it was in the 

 original Kentucky-. 



3) In spite of the lighter weight of the tissue the parent Cattaro con- 

 siderably raises the yield, so that under normal conditions the hybrids of 

 Cattaro are more productive than Kentucky, while all the others are less 

 productive. 



4) In addition to being more resistant to root rot the new varieties 

 are earlier, they develop more rapidly and can stand drought better ; 

 they are hardier and at the same time better adapted to the Italian cHmate. 

 These qualities tend to become strengthened by repeated crossings. 



5) New varieties of similar characters and constitution tend to be- 

 come localised in distribution. 



The introduction of these hybrids has had a considerable influence 

 upon the production of the Kentucky type of tobacco in the three zones 

 mentioned. In an appendix, the yield of the hybrids is compared with that 

 of pure Kentucky. 



1290 - Experiments on Tobacco Fermentation in Java. — de vries o., in MciicdccHn-eH 



villi hcl Frociitation roor \'orMcndlHnd'<chc Tahnk, No. XXI. vSiimannig, 1915. 



A plant has been invented to exhaust the air from the interior of fer- 

 menting stacks of tobacco, and the results obtained are described in the 

 present paper. The apparatus consists of rings of perforated iron tubing 

 which are placed at different heights in the stack and which are connected 



