16(3 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



worth considering. Cash return to the grower is the vital 



point. 



At present there is not a small type of leaf grown in the 



open in New England perfectly suited to the trade, and 



which can compete on equal terms with the Sumatra type in 



the American market. Some types are better suited than 



others, but none are perfectly satisfactory. All of it is too 



large. Our Havana and Broad-leaf, as usually grown, tend 



with each new crop of seed to grow larger. 



The tobacco-breeding; work which has been done in Con- 

 es 



necticut in the last three or four years by the United States 

 Bureau of Plant Industry, in connection with the Connecticut 

 Agricultural Experiment Station, has, I think, established 

 certain facts which are of great value in our eifort to get and 

 keep more desirable strains of tobacco. 



It has been shown that the tobacco plant is perfectly self- 

 fertile, and continues so for at least ftmr years ; that is, the 

 flowers, to produce seed, do not need to be cross-fertilized 

 by insects or any other means. 



Again, it has been shown that, if protected from such 

 crossing of pollen, a fixed type of tobacco will reproduce 

 itself from seed without any marked variation, — at least, 

 with much less variation than plants not so protected, thus 

 securing greater uniformity in the field than we have at 

 present; while, on the other hand, indiscriminate cross- 

 fertilization tends in the opposite direction, namely, to induce 

 or to intensify individual variation, which means uneven to- 

 bacco in the field and in the pole-cured crop. 



A method of preventing cross-fertilization has been prac- 

 ticed in our experiments which is entirely effective, and yet 

 permits the matm'ing of the self-fertilized seed. 



Thirdly, it is possible, by artificially crossing very dis- 

 tinct types of tobacco, like Broad-leaf and Cuban, Connecticut 

 Havana and Sumatra, to produce hybrids having shape and 

 size superior to the domestic varieties. Such hybrids, like 

 all others, have a tendency to "break up," that is, to yield 

 plants differing among themselves much more than those of 

 the original types from which the cross was made. How 

 many years are required to fix this hybrid type is not yet 



