486 



TOBACCO LEAF. 



and magnesia. As would be expected, the plant from the plant bed 

 has the highest percentage of moisture. It also shows the highest ash, 

 phosphoric acid and potash. These last two ingredients gradually 

 diminish as the age of the plant increases, thus showing I hat, the 

 young plant requires a large amount of potash and phosphoric acid. 

 The percentages of lime and chlorine are just the reverse of the phos- 

 phoric acid and potash, as they increase with the age of the plant. 

 The percentage of the insoluble matter is comparatively small in the 

 plant from the plant bed, and is only about one-fourth as much as at 

 the time of topping and cutting. It appears that the plant taken from 

 the plant bed contains, in the air-dried state, nearly three per cent of 

 nitrogen, nearly 1 per cent of phosphoric acid, over 8 per cent of pot- 

 ash and about 2J percent of lime. Taken at the time of topping, it 

 contains about 3 per cent of nitrogen, one-third of 1 per cent of phos- 

 phoric acid, about 4 per cent of potash and over 2 per cent of lime. 

 Taken at time of cutting, it contains nearly three per cent of nitrogen, 

 one-third of 1 per cent of phosphoric acid, nearly 3J per cent of potash 

 and over 3J per cent of lime. 



F. G. Carpenter has also done much analytical work at the North 

 Carolina experiment, station, so have Johnson and Jenkins at the Con- 

 necticut station, Goessman at Amherst, Frear at the Pennsylvania 

 station, and others at the experiment stations of Kentucky, Tennessee, 

 Louisiana, Alabama and Wisconsin. All this work is bringing out 

 much valuable data in addition to the chemical inquiries into tobacco, 

 conducted by Dr. Gideon E. Moore for the tenth census, from which 

 the following table is compiled : 



Table X. AVERAGE COMPOSITION OF CIGAR LEAF (POLE CURED). 



Omitting from the above the percentage of nitrogen in Pennsyl- 

 vania seedleaf, which is exceptionally low, the average of the other 

 samples gives 4.44 per cent of nitrogen In pole-cured tobacco leaves. 



Table XI. THE AMERICAN TOBACCO CROP. 



The United States crop of 1849 WHS returned by the census at 

 199,753,000 pounds, and of 1859 at 434,209,000. The census for 1869 was 

 incomplete in the South, .and, especially in North Carolina, has been 

 imperfect since. That State was credited with only 36,000,000 

 pounds in 1889 by the llth census, W. W. Wood's elaborate inquiries 



