164 TOBACCO LEAF. 



zation, in a careless, shiftless way, resulting in much 

 confusion of varieties and a great lowering of quality. 

 This is all wrong, but it is the general practice at the 

 South, and too often done at the North. There are a 

 few farms in the United States that make a specialty of 

 growing tobacco seed. A bushel of seed, of manufactur- 

 ing varieties, is worth from forty to fifty dollars, but 

 cigar-leaf growers often pay as high as two dollars per 

 ounce, and the prices of cigar-leaf seed varies from fifty 

 cents to two dollars and a quarter per ounce, a fair average 

 for good seed now being one dollar per ounce. " Cheap" 

 seed is always the most expensive. The best growers 

 cheerfully pay the highest price for seed known to be 

 pure and of the best quality. 



The largest, and possibly the best, tobacco seed 

 farm in the world is the Eagland seed farm at South 

 Boston, Virginia. On this farm is grown, every year, 

 from 100 to 125 bushels of tobacco seed, which embraces 

 all the standard, as well as the rare, varieties of tobacco. 

 The yield per acre is from four to five bushels, weighing 

 thirty-five pounds per bushel. In regard to the vitality 

 of tobacco seed, it is curious to note that not more than 

 75 per cent of the most carefully grown seed will ger- 

 minate. Mr. W. C. Slate, the manager of the Ragland 

 tobacco farm, has made many tests in this matter, and 

 he says it is very rare to find any seed that will show a 

 larger per cent of vitality. 



The best way to secure a perfect leaf is to grow the 

 seed plants in an isolated place, removed at least a 

 mile from any other field of tobacco. There must be 

 several plants near each other, so that the pollen may be 

 interchanged between the flowers of the different plants. 

 There is a greenish striped worm, much like the bud 

 worm, that feeds upon the seed pods when young and 

 tender. These worms must be destroyed, as they will 

 make the pods upon which they feed seedless. In turn- 



