TOBACCO 



TOBACCO 



647 



Connecticut Havana tobacco. 



The seed-bed. — For this variety the seed-bed 

 should be located about as for the Sumatra variety. 

 A southern slope where good drainage can be 

 secured is preferable, and a good, rich and friable 

 soil is desirable. As a rule, 200 square feet of seed- 

 bed space should be provided to furnish sufficient 

 seedlings for an acre, although, if the tobacco is to 

 be transferred at different periods a less area will 

 be found to be sufficient. The seed-beds are gener- 

 ally eight feet wide and as long as is necessary to 

 furnish sufficient seedlings for the field. They are 

 usually laid out from east to west. 



The framework of the seed-bed is made of 

 2 X 12-inch boards, set in the ground three to 

 four inches, one side being sunk two inches lower 

 than the other in order that the sash may lie in a 

 slanting position, so that the plants will receive 

 all of the sunlight possible. The best method of 

 covering the bed is by means of glass in sash 

 about three feet wide by eight feet long. These 

 sash are laid over the top of the framework, and 

 can be removed at any time when it is necessary. 

 In some cases, heavy cheese-cloth or tobacco-cloth 

 is substituted for the glass covering, but the tem- 

 perature of the beds can not be regulated so well 

 as with the glass cover, and the cloth should not 

 be used when very early plants are desired. It is 

 asserted by old tobacco-growers, however, that the 

 plants raised under cloth are more hardy than those 

 raised under glass, and it is a frequent practice to 

 grow the early plants under glass and the later 

 seedlings under cloth. 



A successful method of heating seed-beds is by 

 the use of fresh horse manure. In this case the 

 beds should be dug out two feet deep about a week 

 before the time for sowing the seed. The fresh 

 manure should be packed in this space to a depth 

 of one and one-half feet and covered with six 

 inches of sterilized soil. Another successful 

 method of heating is by the use of hot-water or 

 steam pipes, laid around the sides of the bed or 

 under the surface of the soil. General experience 

 has proved, however, that the manure beds are equal 

 In value, if not superior, to the artificially heated 

 ones, mainly from the fact that the heat is distrib- 

 uted evenly through the soil, while, in the case of 

 hot water or steam pipes, the surface of the bed or 

 the air space is likely to be hot while the soil may 

 remain cold and in poor condition for the growth 

 of young plants. 



It is the usual practice in the North to sprout 

 half of the quantity of seed used for sowing in 

 moist, but not too wet, apple-tree punk or rotted 

 coconut fiber about one week before the time for 

 sowing the bed. For this purpose the seed is thor- 

 oughly mixed with the punk and placed in a glass 

 jar, which should be kept in a warm room. The 

 seed will sprout quickly in this medium, and it is 

 probable that earlier plants can be secured from 

 such sprouted seed than from sowing the dry seed 

 alone. The sprouted seed should be sown about the 

 time the sprouts are one-eighth to one-fourth inch 

 in length. Many growers sow the sprouted seed as 

 soon as the seed-coats burst and the sprouts appear. 



If the sprouts become too large, they will be injured 

 during the process of sowing. An equal quantity 

 of dry seed should be mixed with the sprouted seed 

 when the beds are ready for sowing. It has been 

 found by comparative tests made by the Bureau of 

 Plant Industry of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture that in most cases the dry seed pro- 

 duces plants about as early as the sprouted seed, 

 and the plants from the dry seed are more uniform 

 in size and apparently more hardy than those raised 

 from the sprouted and dry seed. combined. In order 

 to get an even distribution of seed over the seed- 

 bed in sowing, it is a good plan to mix the dry seed 

 and the sprouted seed with several times their bulk 

 of land plaster or gypsum, or, if this is not obtain- 

 able, with corn meal or ashes. One to two table- 



Fig. 874. Cutting tobacco plants. Near Hartford, Conn. 



spoonfuls of seed should be used for every 100 

 square yards of seed-bed surface. 



It has been found in the experiments of the 

 Bureau of Plant Industry that the light seed is 

 undesirable and in every case should be separated 

 from the heavy seed and discarded. In order to 

 make a thorough and complete separation, it is 

 necessary to use some form of a wind-blast ma- 

 chine which will blow out the light seed without 

 throwing out the heavy seed at the same time. In 

 Pig. 873 is shown a satisfactory seed separator, 

 by the use of which the light seed can be separated 

 from the heavy seed and discarded, and the heavy 

 seed used for sowing the seed-beds. The heavy seed 

 produces the most vigorous and uniform young 

 plants in the seed-beds. 



The Havana seed variety of tobacco is usually 

 sown in the seed-bed from the middle of March to 

 the middle of April, and the plants are ready for 

 setting out from these beds May 10 to June 10. 

 After sowing the seed, it is desirable to pack the 

 surface of the bed carefully with a roller or heavy 

 plank, in order to press the soil closely about the 



