80 EXPEKLMEXT STATION. [Jan. 



TOBACCO STALKS AS A FERTILIZER. 



H. D. HASKINS. 



Many mnnnfacturiiig industries are to-day supplying valu- 

 able by-products wbich have become recognized sources of avail- 

 able i^lant food. Thirty years ago some of these by-products 

 were considered of no special value, and were disposed of in 

 the most convenient manner. In more recent years, as the de- 

 mand for plant food has increased, manufacturers have been 

 led to investigate the fertilizing value of their by-products. 

 The farm, also, has waste products which should be carefully 

 preserved and" used in the most approved manner. The resi- 

 dues from different crops may vary widely in value, depending 

 upon the character and habit of the plant as Avell as upon the 

 nature of the material itself. 



Tobacco furnishes perhaps as large a proportion of valuable 

 refuse material as any of the various farm crops grown in 

 Massachusetts. Since tobacco is a heavy feeder as well as a 

 large plant, and as it is cut before the plant has a chance to 

 develop its seeds, one may expect to find a large quantity of the 

 plant food constituents in the stalk. It is also possible that 

 a movement of plant saj) takes place from the leaf to the stalk 

 during the curing process. 



The following analyses show the composition of tobacco stalks 

 from which the cured leaf has been stripped (usual process of 

 curing), also stalks from which the green leaf has been picked 

 in the so-called " priming " system of harvesting the crop.^ 

 P)oth analyses have been calculated to the basis of 100 parts of 

 dry matter. 



' The wide difference in composition of the two kinds of stalks cannot, perhaps, be wholly 

 attributed to method of harvesting, as they represent two different types of the tobacco plant. 



