No. 4.] THE TOBACCO TRADE. 173 



Mr. A. M. Lyman (of Montague). My father years ago 

 grew some tobacco on new land, and he said it was remark- 

 ably good tobacco. We have experimented somewhat along 

 that line, lieginning three years ago, and the quality of to- 

 bacco we got was very good, and it did not need nearly as 

 much fertilizer as on the old lands. What can we put on 

 our old land to make such a leaf and quality as we get on 

 this new land ? By new land I mean where we cut off tim- 

 ber, woodland, with stumps. Around the stumps it was not 

 as nice, but a little further up in where the good rows were 

 was some of the finest tobacco I have ever seen grown in our 

 valley. 



Dr. Jenkins. In what single respect was it better than 

 the other tobacco, or was it simply of better quality all 

 through? 



Mr. Lyman. In every way, sir ; the leaf was a trifle 

 heavier, but the extra heft was of the same quality, and as 

 fine and nice a leaf as anything we had, and those who 

 looked at it remarked it right oft'. We could see by what 

 they said that it was pleasing to the buyers. 



Dr. Jenkins. That is an interesting experience, and is in 

 line with a sort of theory I have had, although down in Con- 

 necticut they say tobacco improves the longer you grow it ; 

 a lot forty years old raises better tobacco than at first. We 

 started our five-year experiments with fertilizers on poor new 

 land, covered with poverty grass, wild blackljerry bushes 

 and so forth, and the quality of our to1)acco was better after 

 the land had been cultivated two years. That is rather a 

 different proposition from what Mr. Lyman suggests. In 

 Sumatra they can't raise tobacco more than two years on the 

 same land ; then they let it go back to jungle growth for six 

 or seven years before raising tobacco on it again. In that 

 semi-tropical climate land goes back to wild growth very 

 quickly. They say they lose quality after tobacco has grown 

 more than two years on the same land. Mr. Lyman planted 

 where there had been woodland, and there you have a soil 

 in which there is a lot of humus, a lot of vegetable matter ; 

 and I believe one thing to look out for in our tobacco soils 

 is this supply of humus. We lime them and })ut on chemi- 

 cal fertilizers, and many of our tobacco soils are simply yel- 



