No. 4.] THE TOBACCO TRADE. 169 



Now, I have no judgment at present al^out this adaptation 

 of Cuban tobacco in New England. My point is, that we 

 hope to determine the truth about it, and this is worth whik% 

 whether acclimated Cuban leaf proves to be valuable to us 

 or not. 



And, lastly, I wish to utter what I fear will cause laughter, 

 or be regarded as heresy. I believe that the fiasco in New 

 England shade-grown Sumatra of a few years ago proved 

 nothing except the futility of introducing a new method of 

 growing tobacco by the beating of tom-toms and the plung- 

 ing of the get-rich-quick people. 



When I was a boy, and went bathing with the crowd, if 

 we found a new hole, the wise boys went in and sounded it 

 all around, trod water and hunted for any snags, tree trunks 

 or rocks ; but there were always a few youthful Boanerges 

 who dived in head first with a whoop. Sometimes they came 

 out all right, but sometimes they came out Avith sore heads, 

 and said it was no good. They were good fellows, too, but 

 they were candidates for court-plaster and bandages, just the 

 same. 



Regarding the growing of Sumatra under shade, I see no 

 reason to amend what I said in my printed reports of 1900 

 and 1901. In 1900 I said : — 



It remains to be seen whether such tobacco [shade-grown Su- 

 matra] csmhe econo mica III/ raised in Connecticut, — raised on 

 a considerable scale, at a p?'oJlt. To determine these points 

 will probably require some years of experiment. 



We would strongly urge farmers not to undertake to raise 

 Sumatra tobacco under shade at present, in anything more than 

 a very small way, and purely as an experiment, which will not 

 seriously cripple them, even if it is a complete failure. 



And again, in 1901 I said : — 



In conclusion, our success with two crops, the first raised 

 during a season so dry as to affect the growth of tobacco in the 

 open, the second raised when the latter part of the season was 

 unusually cloudy and wet, indicates that Sumatra tobacco can 

 be successfully produced in Connecticut under shade in any 

 season which is not verv abnormal as to rainfall and sunshine. 



