HANDBOOK OF CONNECTICUT AGRICULTURE. g^ 



soils and sandy loams. Clay in the soil, whatever the system 

 of fertilization or tillage, makes the leaf too dark and heavy 

 for the present trade demands, nor can wrapper-leaf of good 

 quality be grown within twenty miles of salt water. 



The available tobacco lands of the Connecticut Valley 

 have been mapped by the Division of Soils of the U. S. De- 

 partment of Agriculture, and we understand that a similar 

 map of the Housatonic Valley is contemplated. 



Tobacco soils require very liberal fertilization, the cost for 

 fertilizers alone ranging from fifty to eighty dollars an acre. 

 Cotton-seed meal, castor pomace, tobacco stems, bone, cotton 

 hull ashes, wood ashes, and sulphates of potash, with horse 

 manure, are the materials most used. Muriates and large ap- 

 plications of quickly decomposing animal matters seriously 

 damage the burning quality and flavor of the leaf. 



The quality of leaf has been gradually improved during 

 the last twenty years to meet the more exacting demands of 

 the tobacco trade. In 1892 an association of tobacco grow- 

 ers was formed The Connecticut Tobacco Experiment Co. 

 which, in co-operation with the Connecticut Agricultural 

 Experiment Station in New Haven, has been engaged ever 

 since in experiments on the fertilization, curing, and ferment- 

 ation of the wrapper-leaf. 



The results of this work are annually published in the 

 Reports of the Agricultural Station and have commanded 

 widespread attention. 



At present, experiments are in progress, in a considerable 

 number of places, on the growth, in Connecticut, of Sumatra 

 wrapper-leaf, under artificial screen and shade. The work of 

 the Tobacco Co. and the Agricultural Station in 1900, co-op- 

 erating with the Division of Soils of the U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture, demonstrated that exceptionally fine leaf of this 

 variety could be grown in the State. The tests now in prog- 

 ress will tend to show whether, at present prices, this can be 

 done at a profit. 



E. H. JENKINS, PH.D. 



