CONCLUSIONS. 27 
How many years have you sterilized? 
How many square feet of seed bed did you sterilize? 
How many minutes did you sterilize each section? 
Did you have any weeds on your sterilized bed? 
Did the plants do as well on the sterilized bed as they did on the unsterilized beds? 
Were the plants as hardy on the sterilized beds? 
Did the beds require more water when sterilized? 
How much did it cost you to sterilize your beds? 
How much did you gain by sterilizing? 
Do you wish to sterilize next year? 
Do you consider steam sterilizing of seed beds practicable and profitable? 
Give below any other information you can relative to the effectiveness or advantages 
of steam sterilizing of tobacco beds. 
In reply to this circular of inquiry the data given in Table V were 
received. 
TaBLeE V.—Area of tobacco seed beds sterilized and results of such sterilization. 
Square feet} Cost of Gain by 
Name. Address. | sterilized. | sterilizing. sterilizing. Remarks. 
Sees. 2 Southwick, Mass..... 750 $4. 80 | $15.00 | Grew faster. 
ee aes eee ee he 600 5.00 | 5.00 | Grew faster. 
TeWeinerby 9. - 2... 21s eae See ee Fe 720 4.25 20.00 | Plants earlier. 
EET LOOG ie ae as See 300 2. 00 15.00 | Plants earlier. 
ee Sete oo 2 2 2 | Bloomfield, Conn... .. 4,000 30. 00 40.00 | Plants earlier. 
oe eek ch eee ne 6,370 46. 05 95. 00 
It will be noted that the cost of sterilizing 6,370 square feet was 
$46.05, or 0.72 cent per square foot, while the financial gain over and 
above the cost was $95, or 1.5 cents per square foot. In every case 
the plants from the sterilized beds did better, grew faster, and were 
more healthy than those from unsterilized beds, and in consequence 
all the farmers named in Table V intend to sterilize again next year. 
The results obtained from the steam sterilization of the soil make 
it safe to recommend to every farmer that he employ this method 
upon his tobacco seed beds. 
CONCLUSIONS. 
From the results of actual experiments it is evident that tobacco 
can be produced profitably in the Connecticut Valley under shade, 
provided the grower will obtain a good strain of seed and start in on 
a small scale until he gets some experience in growing and handling 
the crop. 
The best cloth to use for shade is one with twelve hard twisted 
threads to the inch. 
In order to insure an abundance of good healthy plants the seed 
beds should be sterilized. 
138 
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