PREFACE 



Following- the established policy of this office of improving the 

 methods of distributing seed wherever possible, a departure has this 

 year been made in the handling of the tobacco-seed distribution, the 

 work of selecting the types which it is desired to distribute being- 

 undertaken by the tobacco experts of the Laboratory of Plant Breeding 

 of the Bureau of Plant Industry. This, it is believed, will result in 

 placing in the hands of really interested persons the very best seed 

 of the various types of tobacco. Some of these types will be entirely 

 new, the results of selection and breeding by Messrs. Shamel and Cobey 

 during the past two or three years. Other types will be such as are 

 already established, but the seed distributed this year has all been care- 

 fully selected with reference to securing- the best possible strain of each 

 type. 



Special attention has been paid in the present bulletin to a discussion 

 of the methods of growing and handling certain varieties, especially 

 those that are more highly specialized. This course was considered 

 necessary, because even if good tobacco is grown it is easily spoiled bj T 

 improper handling. It is hoped that those who read these pages will 

 pay special attention also to the discussion of the selection of seed, 

 because the permanent improvement of tobacco types must necessarily 

 be left in the hands of . intelligent cultivators, and if careful selection 

 is not practiced by them the work which the Department of Agricul- 

 ture is doing will fail to attain the full measure of success which would 

 otherwise be possible. 



A. J. PlETERS, 



Botanist in Charge. 

 Office of Seed and Plant 



Introduction and Distribution, 



Washington, D. C. , December 11, 1905, 



