THE WORK OF THE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT 

 STATIONS ON TOBACCO. 



INTRODUCTION. 



For some years past the agricultural experiment stations in various 

 sections of the country have carried on investigations in the raising 

 and curing of tobacco. This work for the most part has been desul- 

 tory and. being published in so many bulletins — often as a small note 

 or record of progress — it was considered advisable to bring the work 

 together in order to show what lines had received, attention and what 

 results had been attained. It is hoped that by thus bringing together 

 the lines of work and presenting the subject as a whole, some of the 

 stations may be induced to take up the subject in a more compre- 

 hensive and thorough manner and throw more light upon the various 

 phases of the growth and curing of tobacco which have assumed such 

 a degree of economic importance in many districts of this country. 



Some of the subjects which have been investigated by the stations 

 have been fully worked out by growers in one or more sections of the 

 country, and there are a number of problems which the growers have 

 solved by themselves without the intervention or assistance of the 

 stations. Then again there are many problems now confronting the 

 tobacco growers which they have not been able to solve and which 

 the experiment stations have not taken up, or at least have not pub- 

 lished reports upon. So far as possible in the limits of this article, 

 these subjects are briefly referred to, in order to make this report as 

 full, comprehensive, and valuable as possible. 



Tobacco, as a commercial crop, is at present confined to a very few 

 of the States, and to limited and rather well-defined areas in those 

 States. It thus happens that only a very few of the agricultural 

 experiment stations are located in or near tobacco districts. The 

 tobacco industry has become so highly specialized that it is necessary 

 for the successful investigator to become closely identified with the 

 economic details of tobacco culture and handling in order to both 

 intelligently select material to work with and to plan the work for 

 some real economic advancement. Under these conditions it would 

 never be desirable for many stations to undertake investigations in 



