258 TOBACCO LEAF. 



ing the light of the moon in August, at which time the 

 moth is most industrious in depositing its eggs on the 

 plants. The first influx is easily destroyed, for the 

 tobacco is then small and there are but few hiding 

 places for tbe worms, until the suckers begin to put 

 out. It is the second influx that is to be dreaded. The 

 large size of the tobacco leaves at this time, the presence 

 of the suckers and the disposition of the worms, as they 

 grow older, to shift their places, all makes it very diffi- 

 cult to rid the tobacco of this devouring and destructive 

 enemy late in the season. 



3. OTHER TROUBLES WITH THE CROP. 



Broom Rape. In central Kentucky, there is a 

 parasitic flowering plant called broom rape, that at- 

 taches itself to the roots of hemp and tobacco and de- 

 rives its nutriment from that source. It is known to 

 botanists as Phelipcea ramosa, and grows to the hight 

 of about ten inches. As described by the botanist of 

 the Kentucky experiment station, "The stems are thick, 

 whitish, fleshy, pubescent, generally branched and bear 

 small scale like bracts, in place of leaves, which, when 

 old, turn brown at the tips. The flowers are white with 

 a faint purplish tinge ; sometimes of a decidedly purple 

 color. They are borne in loose spikes in the axiles of 

 the bracts. The flowers are all perfect, and as many as 

 forty are produced on a single branch." A section 

 through a young plant and the root to which it is at- 

 tached, shows that they are very closely united. The 

 young broom rape pushes an elongated cell into the 

 root of the host plant, and soon spreads out into a 

 fibrous bundle, robbing the host plant of the nutritive 

 elements which it derives from the soil and atmosphere. 

 The result is an enfeeblement of the infested plants, 

 shown in retarded growth, weakness of the stems, and 

 reduced yield and quality of leaf. 



