14 TOBACCO BKEEDING. 



neglect to appreciate the necessity of securing strains of plants by 

 seed selection of the desirable types adapted to the particular con- 

 ditions of soil and climate in southern Florida. If the acclimatiza- 

 tion of these strains had been accomplished by seed selection in 

 small fields, with little loss to the growers, the strains could have 

 been grown on a more extensive scale with better chances of success. 



In order to illustrate the necessity for the acclimatization of a 

 variety of tobacco before it is grown on an extensive scale, the 

 successful experiments of the Bureau of Soils in the introduction of 

 Cuban tobacco in Texas may be cited. After a previous unsuccess- 

 ful attempt by farmers in Texas to grow Cuban tobacco from 

 freshly imported Cuban seed the Bureau of Soils began systematic 

 experiments in growing small fields of tobacco and saving the 

 seed of the most desirable plants according to the method described 

 in this bulletin. In these crops certain plants were found which 

 produced leaves possessing the flavor and aroma desired in a high- 

 grade filler tobacco. The seeds from these plants were saved under 

 bag, and their product has been found to possess the desirable char- 

 acters of the parent plants. This tobacco has been sold at profitable 

 prices, and the area devoted to the growing of this crop is being 

 gradually extended in order to meet the demands of the manufac- 

 turers for this grade of filler tobacco. In northern Florida the 

 tobacco growers, as a result of their experience with the imported 

 Sumatra seed, experimented in growing, in the open, small fields of a 

 cigar filler tobacco of a variety the seed of which was originally 

 introduced from Cuba. This variety of Florida filler tobacco is 

 now being grown extensively and profitably in that section. 



The best illustration of the effect of a change of climatic and 

 soil conditions upon the character of a variety of tobacco is found 

 in the experience of tobacco growers in the Connecticut Valley in 

 the planting of Florida-grown Sumatra seed and seed of the 

 Sumatra variety imported from the island of Sumatra. As dis- 

 cust in an article upon the improvement of tobacco by breeding 

 and seed selection in the Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture 

 for 1904, a tobacco growers in the Connecticut Valley in the seasons 

 of 1901 and 1902 grew extensive crops from seed introduced from 

 Florida and Sumatra. In a careful examination of these fields it 

 was found that the change in conditions had resulted in the breaking 

 up of the type of the variety, so that several distinct types of tobacco 

 were found growing in the same fields. Some of these types of 

 plants produced well-rounded leaves, with fine venation and the 

 elasticity, strength, gloss, grain, and other characters necessary in 



« Shamel, A. D. Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture, 1904, pp. 435^52. 

 96 



