32 TOBACCO BREEDING. 



that it is possible to produce better fillers by originating and per- 

 petuating small-leaved varieties of tobacco. The yield from such 

 types has been comparatively small, but by setting the plants closer 

 together it is believed that there will be very little decrease in the 

 yield to the acre in the production of small leaves uniformly thruout 

 the crop. . 



The great variation in the size of leaf which is found in nearly all 

 tobacco fields makes it possible to breed up and fix varieties which 

 will produce uniformly the size of leaf most desired to meet special 

 market demands. Plants producing small leaves are found growing 

 along with those producing large leaves when all are, as far as we 

 know, of exactly the same variety and grow under equal and uniform 

 conditions. This variation is undoubtedly due to promiscuous acci- 

 dental cross-pollination which has taken place in preceding genera- 

 tions. This variation in size as in shape of leaf also occurs much 

 more strikingly on some individual plants than on others. Plants 

 may be found in all tobacco fields with leaves of comparatively the 

 same size and shape from the top to the bottom of the stalk, while in 

 the majority of instances they are much smaller near the base and 

 top than the middle of the stalk. By selecting seed plants that pro- 

 duce leaves which are uniformly of the desired size and shape from 

 top to base of plant and by covering the flower heads with light 

 paper bags, leaves very uniform -in this respect may be grown the 

 following year from seed saved in this manner. 



Any tobacco grower will recognize immediately the advantages to 

 be gained by producing types of tobacco in which the leaves on all 

 of the plants are uniform in size and shape and where the leaves on 

 the individual plants are likewise uniform in this respect from the 

 top to the bottom of the plant. The yield of the crop will be mate- 

 rially increased, as will the value of the tobacco, while the cured 

 product from such fields will be much more uniform in the packing 

 house and the cost of handling proportionately reduced. The writers 

 have already secured striking uniformity in some of the best strains 

 of cigar and smoking tobaccos grown from seed which they have se- 

 lected carefully and systematically for three years, and have found a 

 considerable increase in the yield and value of the crop grown from 

 such varieties. 



A recognition of the importance of producing this uniformity is 

 emphasized by the great number of demands made upon the writers 

 for seed of these improved strains. It is easily within the power of 

 tobacco growers to improve their present strains of tobacco in the 

 shape and size of leaf, as well as in other characters, by selecting 

 for seed the plants which are most nearly perfect in these respects 

 and by saving the seed under bag according to the methods outlined 



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