16 



TOBACCO BREEDING. 



ers now have small fields and are selecting those plants producing 

 the most desirable grade of cigar- wrapper tobacco with a view to 

 securing strains which are adapted to the conditions of the Connecti- 

 cut Valley. In the experimental fields of the Bureau of Plant Indus- 

 try, covered with cloth shade, where seed of de- 

 sirable plants has been saved under bag for three 

 seasons, uniform strains, which are absolutely 

 free from the unusual or distinct types observed 

 in the fields from which the original selections 

 of seed were made, have been produced. 



A few of the growers of the Sumatra variety 

 in the Connecticut Valley introduced Cuban- 

 grown seed and used it for planting their general 

 crops. In these fields the breaking up in type 

 was not so noticeable as in the case of the Suma- 

 tra variety, but the effect of change of conditions 

 in the variety was shown in the production of 

 so - called freak plants. These plants had a 

 branching, or suckering, habit of growth, bearing- 

 very small, sharply pointed, coarse leaves that 

 were worthless for cigar-wrapper purposes.- In 

 a careful study of the plants in these fields it was 

 found that at least one-third of the entire crop 

 consisted of these freak plants. 



In one of these fields the writers made selec- 

 tions of seed plants of the most desired type, 

 bearing the size, shape, and general character of 

 leaves adapted for cigar wrappers. This seed 

 was saved under bag, and a similar plan has 

 been followed up to the present time. 



In Plate I, figure 1, the original crop raised 

 from freshly imported seed from which the seed 

 selections were made is shown. In Plate I. 

 figure 2, is shown a crop grown on the same field 

 after two generations during which the seed was 

 saved under bag. As can be seen from the 

 illustrations, this method of seed selection and 

 bagging has produced a uniform type of to- 

 bacco without the freaks and other undesir- 

 able types of the original crop. It is fortunate that on this farm 

 the planter saved seed in the open for his own use from the same 

 field. The crop grown from such seed was visited during the season 

 of 1905 by the writers, in company with Dr. H. J. Webber and several 

 tobacco growers, and was found to contain a large proportion of 

 freaks; in fact, about the same proportion as the crop grown from 



96 



Fig. 2.— Typical leaf of 

 Belgian type of tobacco, 

 showing the character- 

 istic shape, venation, 

 and other characters of 

 this variety which are 

 wholly unsuited for ci- 

 gar-wrapper manufac- 

 ture. The presence of 

 such types of leaves re- 

 duces the value of the 

 crop and is detrimental 

 to the reputation of the 

 variety of tobacco in 

 which they are pro- 

 duced. 



