8 
of nicotine. AIl these points are of particular interest. Unless all the 
conditions necessary for the normal development of the plant are united 
various dangers menace the crop; and there may even be the develop- 
meut of a singular disease which annually causes immense damage, 
namely, the mosaic disease. 
Among the various tobacco soils of Connecticut there are some that 
are better suited for broad leaf than for Havana seed as, for example, 
the soil at East Hartford, Conn., where the culture of the latter had to 
be given up, the fine cinnamon-brown color not having been attained 
on this kind of soil. 
The weather also constitutes one of the most important factors as to 
the quality of the tobacco. Too moist as well as too dry years are 
injurious; the latter, however, more so than the former, since the leaves 
remain smaller and grow thick and become relatively too heavy; and, 
furthermore, show insufficient elasticity and frequently burn poorly. 
In too moist years the leaves remain weak, are attacked easily by 
fungi and, moreover, the aroma of the tobacco is injured. In rainy 
weather, especially when the temperature is rather low, the amount of 
acid in the leaves is also increased and this may exert a detrimental 
effect on the oxidizing enzyms in the curing process when the tobacco 
is harvested in such a condition. The oxidizing enzyms are the pro- 
moters of all desirable changes in the curing and the sweating process. 
Variable weather is the best. Van Bemmelen! says that the weather 
in Sumatra is generally more favorable than in Java where fre- 
quently extremes are observed. In Deli, Sumatra, occasional rains 
occur even during the drymonsoon. After twenty days of dry weather 
a rain is much desired there for tobacco. Forty days of dry weather 
are considered very injurious. The short showers falling through the 
period of tobacco growing are considered so important that a continu- 
ous record is kept on many tobacco plantations. It is principally the 
great rapidity of development that causes the fineness of the ribs and 
veins and the elasticity, making the tobacco leaves from Sumatra 
unsurpassed aS wrappers.” : 
On warm bright days not only is much more carbon assimilated—that 
is, more starch, the mother substance of all the other organic constitu- 
ents of the plants, is formed. but also the respiration is increased by 
the high temperature, although not to such an extent as to consume 
all the starch increased by the bright light. All processes of metabo- 
lism are thus promoted by warm and bright days, undesirable by- 
products may be destroyed and favorable produets formed. How 
differences of temperature influence the intensity of the respiration 
process may be seen from the following data. While Behrens observed, 
for 100 grams fresh tobacco leaf at 21° C. (69.8° F.), a production of 
0.254 grams of carbonic acid in ten hours, Déherain and Moissan ob- 
‘Landw. Vers. Stat., vol. 37, p. 385. 
* Report No. 62, U. S. Department of Agriculture. M. L. Floyd. 
