Journal of the Department 

 OF Agriculture. 



Vol. II. MAY, 1921. No. 5. 



Published monthly in English and Afrikaans by the Department of Agriculture, 



Union of South Africa. 



Editor: G. W. Klerck. 



Subscription: Within the Union and South-West Protectorate, 5s. (otherwise 6s,) 

 per annum, post free, payable in advance. 



Applications, with subscriptions, to be sent to the Government 

 Printer, -Box 378, Pretoria. 



NOTES. 



Turkish Tobacco. 



It is estimated that the TTnioii's 1920-21 crop of turkish tobacco 

 will yield approximately 750,000 lb. The ruling- prices lor this class 

 of tobacco range from Is. io 2s. 9d. per lb., according; to quality, 

 but the large bulk of our i)roductioii is fetching a price of about 

 2s. 3d. per lb., so that this section of the Union's agricultural 

 industry, one confined sokly to the western districts of the Cape 

 Province, may be estimated as being worth nearly £85,000 this year. 

 And it is a comparatively young industry. That the possibility 

 of successfully cultivating turkish tobacco in South Africa had been 

 thought of by individuals, and that in the course of time its introduc- 

 tion ''was ultimately certain, there can be no doubt, but it is an 

 interesting fact that the inception of the industry in this country was 

 due to a fortuitous circumstance. It was in 1903 that Mr. L. M. 

 Stella, the well-known turkish tobacco expert in the Department, who 

 was at that time farming near French Hoek, received a letter from a 

 friend in Turkey containing a small quantity of tobacco seed of the 

 Soulook variety. The envelope with the seed was put away and, 

 in the many duties falling to the share of the farmer, forgotten. 

 When the envelope was first opened, however, a iew seeds happened 

 to fall in the garden in front of the homestead. These seeds germi- 

 nated, and, though very late in the season, Mr. Stella, who had 

 experience with the industry in Turkey, was so taken up with the 

 possibility of growing the tobacco locally as a remunerative enterprise 

 that he managed to obtain forty plants from the seeds accidentally 

 sown; which were planted out and eventually grew up, and matured. 



13 



