NICOTIANA 



1MSKASKS (K THK rK< >1> Cultivation 



Burma 



sheep. They are placed in holes 18 inches apart and filled in with a mixture 

 of red earth, sand and dung. About a month and a half after being set 

 out they are topped, six or seven leaves only being allowed to remain, and Pmoiac. 

 the suckers art- ivnmveil. Thi-v are ripe in November and January and 

 i lit down to within 4 or 5 inches of the ground. The stems are then 

 split lengthwise, each portion carrying three or four leaves. [Cf. Rice, 

 Mysore (,'az., 1H97. i., 12-8.] 



Burma. The total area in 1905-6 amounted to 49,205 acres in Lower Burma. 

 Burma, 26,560 acres in Upper Burma. In Lower Burma the largest areas 

 occur in Henzada, 12,849 acres ; Thayetmyo, 6,627 acres ; Tharawadi, 5,601 

 acres ; Prome, 3,772 acres ; and Kyaukpyu, 3,525 acres : in Upper Burma, 

 Pakokku, 5,530 acres ; Mandalay, 4,393 acres ; Minbu, 2, 646 acres; Sagaing, 

 4,156 acres ; and Myingyan, 3,944 acres. 



Mackenna (Settl. Itrjit. Henzada, 1901, 50-1) states that the bulk of 

 the crop is grown on low lands annually flooded. A high-land portion of 

 the holding isploughed during July to August, and about the end of August 

 to the middle of September seed is sown in nurseries. In four or five weeks 

 the seedlings will be 3 or 4 inches above ground and are ready for trans- 

 plantation in October to November or early in December. The ground is 

 previously prepared by numerous ploughings, and the plants are placet I m 

 furrows 3 feet apart at a distance of 3 feet from each other. The ground 

 must be kept free of weeds, and about a month after transplanting the 

 small leaves are removed till only six to ten are left. About March to H*rrt. 

 April plucking commences, and is continued till the rains break. On poor 

 soil tobacco should be planted every three or four years only in the same 

 place, but in good soil annual plantings may go on for twenty or twenty- 

 five years. The expense of cultivation is calculated at an average of 

 Rs. 40 per acre, and the total value of the outturn at Rs. 113'25 per acre, outturn. 



[Cf. Dist. Settl. Repte. Burma ; Nisbet, Burma under Brit. Rule and Before, 

 1901, i., 387-8; Scott, Gaz. Upper Burma and Shan States, 1901 (many passages); 

 Proc. Board Agri., Puaa, 1906,109-12 ; Rept*. Dept. Land Rec. and Agri., Burma.} 



DISEASES OF THE TOBACCO PLANT. Howard (U.S. Yearbook, Diseases. 

 Agri. Dept., 1898) gives useful particulars regarding the insect pests. So also 

 various publications furnish details regarding Ceylon (Trop. Agrist.. xxv.. 

 825 ; xxvi., 130). Delacroix (Recherches sur Quelques Maladies du Tabac 

 en France, Paris, 1906) has published a full account of the most recent 

 researches and has described the symptoms and methods of treatment of 

 several diseases. He deals full}*, for example, with the Canker, caused 

 by a bacterium which he has named llm-Ulu* <n-iti/hu>*its; with Collar 

 Rot (Pourriture du Collet) and Pith Rot (Pourriture de la Moelle), also 

 due to bacterial organisms hitherto undescribed ; with Foot Rot (Pour- 

 riture du Pied) due to Fnmirinni tahtiriroriun. Delacwijr : with Mosaic 

 Disease (La Nielle or Mosaique) ; and with White Spot Disease (Maladie 

 des Taches blanches), etc. So far as at present known, most of these 

 blights do not seem to have appeared on the Indian tobacco plant. 



Of the blights of tobacco, the best known are the broom rapes, Oro- Broom iup. 



imlica and f>. nirtitimr, common in most of the tobacco dis- 

 tricts, especially in Bengal, Madras and Gujarat. Mollison states that in 

 Gujarat a bad attack may sometimes destroy a quarter of the crop. The 

 only practicable direct means of lessening its severity is the prevention 

 of the parasite from forming seed. Another serious disease, in some 

 districts, is the tobacco mildew, caused by the conoidal stage of 



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