164 TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 



ferred to the stalk during the process of curing. It has been 

 shown by experiment that tobacco leaves lose from 10 to 12 per 

 cent, more if dried on the stalk than if removed from the stalk 

 when green. 



Nearly all commercial tobacco is derived from Nicotiana 

 tabacum. The tobacco from this species includes the Mary- 

 land, Virginia, Paraguay, Cuban, Philippine, Seed-leaf, Lata- 

 kia, Turkish, Chinese, and certain other sorts of tobacco. In 

 this species the lobes of the corolla are pointed and the leaves 

 are nearly sessile. N. rustica has distinctly petioled leaves and 

 blunt corolla lobes. This species is the source of Hungarian, 

 Brazilian, and certain of the Asiatic tobaccos and is always 

 of an inferior grade. The trade terms for the commercial sorts 

 of tobacco are numerous and the system of classification of 

 grades of tobacco is very complicated. Any thorough discus- 

 sion of this classification would lie outside the field of the gen- 

 eral reader. The terms export and manufacturing tobacco are 

 used by tobacco dealers to indicate tobaccos used in the manu- 

 facture of smoking and chewing tobacco, cigarette tobacco, and 

 snuff. The terms export and manufacturing are, therefore, 

 used to distinguish these tobaccos from cigar tobacco. The 

 tobacco which is imported into the United States consists prin- 

 cipally of cigar filler tobacco from Cuba and cigar wrapper 

 tobacco from Sumatra and Borneo. Importations of Turkish 

 tobacco have also considerably increased in recent years. The 

 yield of tobacco varies greatly according to locality and the 

 type of tobacco. It ranges from 500 to 2,400 pounds of cured 

 leaf per acre. There is an active competition in the produc- 

 tion of high-grade tobaccos, particularly fillers, and it has been 

 found that the grower must have at least a 5o-acre crop in 

 order to cure a sufficient quantity for proper fermentation. In 

 the high-grade tobaccos this fermentation is brought about by 

 tying the cured leaves in bunches called hands which are then 

 piled in heaps on the floor of the fermentation house. The 

 heaps may be 4 feet wide by 8 or 10 feet long and from 4 to 6 



