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THE CUBA REVIEW 



INFORMATION FOR THE AMERICAN SETTLER 



THE PLANTS IN ONE OUNCE OF TOBACCO SEED- 



NIA — UPLAND RICE 



-POINTS FROM CALIFOR- 



One Ounce of Tobacco Seed 



An ounce of carefully prepared tobacco 

 seed contains from 300.000 to 400,000 seeds. 

 A large percentage of these, however, will 

 not germinate, yet, allowing for the im- 

 perfect seeds, from 30,000 to 40,000 plants 

 should be secured from an ounce of good 

 heavy seeds, but the plants obtained will 

 not all be of a uniform size. Many of them 

 will be weak and unhealthy and should not 

 be transplanted to the field. In order to 

 secure a sufficient number of good strong 

 plants for transplanting the entire field at 

 one time it is necessary that the grower 

 sow an area to seed several times larger 

 than would otherwise be required. By 

 thus having a large number of plants to 

 choose from, one is able to select only the 

 largest and strongest for the field. Under 

 ordinary conditions a seed bed containing 

 eighty square meters should furnish an 

 abundance of plants for transplanting one 

 hectare, and to sow an area of the above 

 size, two ounces of seed will be ample. It 

 is advisable to sow two or three beds at 

 intervals of ten days apart, each capable 

 of supplying enough plants for transplant- 

 ing the entire field, then if floods or insects 

 should destroy one bed, the farmer may 

 rely on the others for transplanting his 

 crop. — B. E. Brczijer, Tobacco Specialist, 

 in the Philippine Review, August, 1910. 

 A frequent mistake is made in using too 

 large a quantity of seed. It is far better 

 to err in using too little. In the latter 

 case the plants will be large, healthy, low 

 and stocky, and will be strong enough to 

 withstand a very hot sun, and may be 

 transplanted in the field when there is but 

 little moisture in the soil. 



When plants are crowded in the seed 

 bed the stems are small, slender and deli- 

 cate, and they have such weak constitution 

 that many of them die on being trans- 

 planted to the field. 



Points from California 



A recent meeting of citrus fruit growers 

 in Los Angeles brought out some interest- 

 ing information. 



Professor Parrish stated that good au- 

 thorities place the age of orange trees in 

 Europe at from 50 to 80 years, and that 

 budded trees are much shorter lived than 

 seedlings and are selected for quality 

 rather than quantity. 



The best fruits, he said, were monstrosi- 



ties and seedless and incapable of repro- 

 ducing themselves. The navel, for in- 

 stance, has an abortive secondary orange 

 inside it. 



Divergence from type in the navel orange 

 was very frequent, said Professor Coit, an- 

 other grower, and was mostly a reversion. 

 The greatest care in the selection of buds 

 should be taken if the variety was to be 

 kept true. He said further that the buds 

 should be cut when mature fruit is on the 

 tree, in order to see what one is getting. 

 A navel is needed that will hang on the 

 tree like the Valencia, will sweeten earlier 

 and stand heat. 



William Wood said that citrus trees of 

 recent planting were apparentlv not as 

 sturdy as trees of former planting and de- 

 teriorated earlier. Sour orange seeds were 

 formerly used almost exclusively, but in 

 the past 35 years seeds from cull oranges 

 and from dwarf and sickly trees have been 

 used. Mr. Wood and other speakers urged 

 the use of seed from wild oranges. 



Upland Rice 



Slightly brackish water is not injurious 

 to rice, but salt water is destructive. While 

 rice is chiefly grown on lands that are low, 

 level, and easily irrigated, there are va- 

 rieties which can be grown on fertile up- 

 lands without irrigation. In the interior 

 districts of India, China, and Japan upland 

 rice is grown to a considerable extent, but 

 the crop is uncertain and in j^ield and 

 quality considerable inferior to lowland rice 

 produced by irrigation. 



Gravelly or sandy soils are not adapted 

 to rice cultivation because they do not pos- 

 sess the mechanical conditions for the re- 

 tention of water. Occasionally, on a Hght 

 sandy soil, underlain by a stift' subsoil, one 

 or two fairly good crops of rice may be 

 grown, but this is the Hmit. Bulletin U. S. 

 Dcpt. of Agriculture. 



Copra in Commerce 



The commercial uses of copra, the meat 

 of the cocoanut, are many. It is extensively 

 used for making edible fats, being freely 

 used in place of lard, cottonseed oil and 

 tallow. There are several factories in 

 Germany making an imitation butter and 

 other edible products from copra, and there 

 is a growing demand for cocoanut oil. — 

 U. S. Consular Report. 



