OTHER FARM CROPS 619 



leaf, and the breadth of leaf, and proportion of stem, and the length 

 of leaf from point to butt. (U. S. E. S. Far. Inst. Lect. 9.) 



Capital Requirements. Anyone undertaking the cultivation of 

 tobacco should have all his equipment of land and buildings ready 

 before an acre of tobacco is planted. Tobacco brooks no delay. 

 Wrapper tobacco is of the highest price, and every effort should, 

 therefore, tend toward producing as large a crop of wrapper and of 

 as good a quality as the soil and climate will permit. When the 

 necessary equipment has been prepared, the field operations may be 

 begun. To do things the other way round is to risk the whole invest- 

 ment, for tobacco is not tobacco unless it is properly handled. The 

 best Partidos, Cuban wrappers, and the plants producing Deli or 

 other famous Sumatra types, are forced from the time the young 

 plant makes its appearance in the seed bed. On the best Cuban 

 plantations the plants are watered in the field every three or four 

 days during the whole growing period. That plant which grow r s 

 the most rapidly, other things being equal, will produce the best 

 leaf, and of two plants set side by side, the one forced and the other 

 not, that which is forced will produce the greatest percentage of 

 wrapper leaves on the plant. 



To grade the leaf and cure it requires a heavy investment of 

 capital, but the growing of the leaf alone is an ideal occupation for a 

 farmer of small means. It is becoming customary in Florida and 

 other tobacco-producing sections of the United States for the larger 

 growers, who control the curing barns and operate the fermenting 

 and assorting establishments, to purchase the green leaves from small 

 producers. The value of the finished product is sufficient to enable 

 the larger tobacco grower to cultivate his small neighbor by paying 

 good prices for the leaf. In fact, it is to their interests to do so. The 

 greater the acreage of tobacco planted in any section, the greater will 

 be the stock from which to select grades of the highest quality. 



It is, furthermore, an advantage even more than that, a neces- 

 sity that every tobacco-producing section should have a large per- 

 manent population from which to draw labor, and the individuals 

 of that community should be landowners. The crop calls for a great 

 deal of labor, and when labor is required it can not be put off. 

 Wrapper tobacco which is allowed to become overripe will not make 

 good wrappers and is not salable as such. Sumatra wrapper tobacco 

 of the best lengths and light colors cost $4 per pound laid down in 

 New York in April, 1907, whereas prime domestic filler was obtain- 

 able at from 15 to 20 cents per pound. This relative proportion be- 

 tween filler and wrapper almost always prevails, so that every effort 

 imust be made to force the tobacco plant to make wrapper leaves, and 

 to so cultivate, cure, and ferment that the largest proportion of 

 wrapper shall be of suitable colors, sizes, and texture. The rewards 

 of the successful cultivator are greater than in almost any other 

 agricultural crop. 



On account of the fact that the enemies of the cultivated crop 

 increase rapidly with each successive cultivation on the same land, 



