21 



Practical growers in all of the tobacco districts have for years 

 experimented upon this subject and very marked results have been 

 attained in the production of an article suited to the market demands. 

 It is quite possible to vary the commercial grade and influence the 

 price considerably by harvesting the crop at different stages of ripe- 

 ness. This has been taken advantage of in many cases in catering to 

 many trade requirements. It is one of the methods by which the 

 quality of the tobacco can be sensibly controlled. 



EFFECT OF PRIMING TOBACCO PLANTS. 



Priming consists in removing the leaves of the tobacco plant as they 

 mature. 



It was noticed in connection with curing experiments at the North 

 Carolina Station * that priming had a marked effect on the growth 

 and chemical composition of the upper leaves. Removal of the lower 

 leaves caused an increased growth in the upper leaves and with it 

 an increase in percentage of nitrogenous matter and nicotine. The 

 quality of the product wa< thus somewhat lowered by priming, but 

 the gain in weight more than compensated for the loss in quality. 



Priming the leaves from the stalk as they ripen is believed by many 

 practical tobacco growers to be the proper method of harvesting the 

 cigar and cigarette types, for in this way alone can the tobacco be 

 saved just at the proper stage of ripeness. Priming does not impair, 

 but improves, the quality. The increase in pounds is simply due to 

 the fact that the upper leaves are allowed to remain on the stalk until 

 they are fully developed and matured. The priming of tobacco is 

 more expensive than cutting the stalk, as more labor is required, but 

 the improvement in quality fully warrants this additional cost. 



The method of priming is very generally used now with the bright 

 yellow leaf of Virginia and North Carolina, and with the Sumatra 

 type of wrapper leaf in Florida. It has the advantage that the leaves 

 are uniformly matured when they are hung in the barn, and the 

 linished crop is therefore of a more uniform character. In priming it 

 is usual to go over the crop three or four times, finally cutting the 

 stalk with the top leaves attached. 



EXPERIMENTS IN TOPPING TOBACCO. 



The Central Experimental Farm at Ottawa. Canada. 2 conducted 

 experiments in topping tobacco plants in order to determine how the 

 time of topping and the number of leaves left on the plants affect the 

 yield. The plants were topped July 20 and •>$ and August 2, and on 

 each date one plat was cut back to 9 leaves and another to 11 leaves per 



1 North Carolina Station Bui. No. 90a. 

 -Canada Experimental Farm Report, 1S97. 



