TEOSINTB 



TOBACCO 



639 



pending on the method of planting; usually one 

 pound per acre is sufficient. The seed is rather 

 expensive, and must be purchased each year. 



Teosinte iEuchlcena Mexieana). 



The crop is given much the same cultivation as 

 corn, and is fertilized as for corn or sorghum. 

 Fig. 861 illustrates the luxuriant growth. 



Harvesting and yield. 



Teosinte is seldom used in any way except as a 

 soiling crop. Its great succulence and the fact 

 that it is usually grown where there is much rain 

 renders it nearly impossible to cure it for fodder. 

 It has occasionally been ensiled and is said to make 

 a fair quality of silage. When used as a soiling 

 crop, it furnishes several cuttings during the season. 

 It is best cut when four or five feet high, as it 

 becomes less palatable if allowed to mature much 

 beyond this. When grown for fodder it may be cut 

 late in the season, and the amount of feed secured 

 will be practically as great as that secured by 

 cutting it several times during the season. 



When grown for seed in Florida, the plants are 

 sometimes cut once or twice before they are 

 allowed to run to seed. The seed is ready to har- 

 vest in December. It is run through an ordinary 

 grain thresher and sold by sample. 



The yields of forage are enormous, placing teo- 

 sinte at the head of the grasses in the yields per 

 acre. Harvests of eighteen to thirty tons per acre 

 are not uncommon. When to this great yielding 

 property is added the fact that the entire plant is 

 relished by stock, its importance as a forage crop 

 is readily understood. The stalks are tender and 

 nutritious, and none of the plant is wasted. 



Although teosinte has been known for a long 

 time, it has almost no standing as a farm crop in 

 this country. It is utterly useless to plant it on 

 any except moist, rich soil, and such soil is not 

 common in the section where it is grown. The fact 

 that practically its sole use is for soiling purposes 

 greatly limits its usefulness as a farm crop. 



Literature. 



Farmers' Bulletin No. 102, United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture ; Kansas Experiment Station, 

 Bulletin No. 123; Florida Experiment Station, 

 Bulletin No. 78. 



TOBACCO. Nicotiana Tabacum, Linn. Solanaeece. 

 Figs. 862-880 ; also Figs. 178, and 108 in Vol. I. 



By A. D. Shamel. 



Tobacco is a plant of American origin, the leaves 

 of which are used for smoking, chewing, snuff 

 and also medicinal purposes. The genus Nicotiana 

 embraces about fifty species, but N. Tabacum (from 

 South America) supplies about all of the cultivated 

 varieties of tobacco. Another species, Nicotiana 

 rustica, is occasionally found wild in Connecticut, 

 New York, Colorado, and other states. It is com- 

 monly grown in Mexico for smoking purposes, 

 being there perennial. 



Botanical characters. (Figs. 862, 863.) 



The tobacco flowers are arranged on a branching, 

 determinate flower-head, which appears when the 

 middle leaves are about half-grown, and continues 

 to develop and produce new flowers during the 

 remainder of the life of the plant. The calyx is 

 green and five-parted. The corolla is tubular or 

 funnel-shaped and delicately colored. It is compar- 

 atively small from the basal end to a point about 

 two-thirds the distance to the terminal end of the 

 flower. At this point it enlarges suddenly to more 

 than twice the size of the basal part. Its five petals 

 coalesce to form the corolla tube, and separate only 

 at the extreme end. The stamens are five in number. 

 The ovary is two-celled. The early capsules always 

 mature before flowering ceases. 



The tobacco flower is symmetrical. The number 

 of sepals and stamens is always the same as the 



Fig. 862. Flowers of tobacco. 



number of petals, but these floral circles do not 

 remain constant, varying rather indefinitely in 

 different strains and even among individuals of the 

 same strain. Trimerous flowers, or flowers with 



