29 



tightly closed, thereby controlling the humidity of the interior. In 

 case the humidity should become too low it can be increased by 

 admitting the damp night air. This, however, would rarely be 

 necessary in Porto Rico, because of the usual high humiditj- of the 

 air. In order to keep a desirable amount of humidity in the air it is 

 advisable to make occasional tests with the hygrometer, and if too 

 much or too little is found means can be taken to secure the proper 

 amount. 



Record of temperature in fermenting pile of tobacco. 



SEED SELECTION. 



An examination of the tobacco fields of Porto Rico and of the prod- 

 uct in the factories and warehouses shows a number of tobacco vari- 

 eties in the same field or in the same lot of tobacco, so that the crop 

 as a whole can not be spoken of as a distinctive type of Porto Ricau 

 tobacco. Among the several varieties noticed two very distinct ones 

 may be mentioned, one in which the veins of the leaf grew almost at 

 right angles to the midrib, and the other (called "lengua vaca") " in 

 which the veins made an acute angle with the midrib. These wide 

 variations, which give rise to what may be called different tj'pes or 

 varieties of tobacco, are no doubt lai'gelj' the result of defective 

 methods of seed selection, as pointed out in the report on preliminary 

 investigations. Indeed, the method of procuring tobacco seed is such 



« Literally " cow tongue "; i. e., a narrow, pointed leaf. 



