Edible Products. 



440 



[November, 1908. 



grown posturas are used, as good and 

 tar better tobacco may be grown at 

 less cost. It has been proven conclusively 

 elsewhere, and also in Cuba, that seed 

 selection pays; seed from plants of the 

 finest type only, seed from the main 

 terminal flower cluster, seed from the 

 largest strongest capsules, and finally 

 the heaviest seed. We tested this in 

 a way, in our experimental plots, by 

 making a planting on very poor ground, 

 ground that had been occupied only 

 by Johnson grass, using very strong 

 and healthy posturas from heavy seed 

 that had come out of the best parents. 

 The ground was very carefully and 

 thoroughly worked, but received no 

 fertilizer of any description and had 

 only a very uncertain water supply. 

 Cultivation was frequent and careful. 

 The resulting plants were as tall and 

 strong and produced as many leaves 

 and of as good quality as any uncovered 

 tobacco in near-by vegas which had 

 received fertilizers in quantity and 

 water ad-libitum. This does not mean 

 that good tobacco may always be 

 raised on wornout soils without ferti- 

 lizers, by use of good seed and posturas, 

 but it does mean, and that most 

 emphatically, that these two items are 

 of the very greatest importance in 

 tobacco culture, 



Most plants require the union of 

 two sexual elements to produce 

 seed, very much after the manner 

 of animals, and with very similar 

 results so far as heredity goes. 

 The fine yellow dust called pollen we 

 may speak of as the male element, 

 and the pistil which stands in the centre 

 of the flower, and the lower part of 

 which eventually develops into a capsule, 

 as the female portion. Hence both sexes 

 may occur in the same flower. Com- 

 monly through the agency of insects the 

 pollen is carried from flower to flower, 

 causing broadcast mixture of blood with- 

 in each species, and with most plants it 

 is a decided advantage to the race to 

 have the mixture take place. Besides, it 

 actively promotes continuous variation. 

 So that in the case of tobacco it will not 

 do to simply mark plants in the field and 

 afterward collect the seed from these. 

 Fortunately tobacco happens to be a 

 plant that readily submits to inbreed- 

 ing, i.e., forms good seed by the use of 

 the pollen in the same flower. The 

 progeny resulting from this inbreeding 

 possesses the very desirable quality of 

 remarkable similarity to the parent, so 

 that seed so produced from selected 

 plants possesses a far higher value than 

 ordinary seed. To insure inbreeding a 

 stout paper sack must be placed over 

 the entire flower cluster before any of 

 the flowers are open, and tied in so 



closely to the stem below that no insects 

 may enter. Large sacks, at least 18 

 inches long, must be used, and they 

 should be examined at least twice each 

 week and moved up to keep pace with 

 the expanding flower cluster. Heavy 

 wiuds will whip these about and break 

 off the plants if long sharpened sticks 

 are not run down close to the stems and 

 the sacks tied to them at top and bottom. 

 This selecting should all be done in the 

 open fields instead of under cheese cloth, 

 the planter personally going throuerh 

 and distinctly marking just such plants 

 a,s he considers of the best type and 

 quality and to him altogether desirable, 

 bejore the first topping is done. These 

 selected plants should not be topped, 

 but be allowed to develop normally 

 until time to put on the bags. Later on 

 no harm will be done if some of the best 

 leaves on these plants are picked, but 

 the majority of the leaves should be left 

 undisturbed. As soon as the flowers 

 have all dropped, the bags may be 

 removed and stored in a dry place for 

 another year's use. The capsules 

 should be allowed to remain on the 

 plant until perfectly ripened. After the 

 bags are removed, a boy with a pair of 

 old scissors may be sent through to 

 cut out all the small and weakened 

 capsules. Plants vary widely under dif- 

 ferent conditions and even under the 

 same conditions in the amount of seed 

 produced. From ten plants which we 

 have selected, which had set a fair num- 

 ber of capsules and from which all the 

 small capsules had been discarded, we 

 obtained 100 grams of fine clean heavy 

 seed. But many weights should be 

 taken under varying conditions to get at 

 a safe average that could be used for 

 general estimates. However, using the 

 above figures, it would require the bag- 

 ging of at least forty-five good plants to 

 secure a pound of the best heavy seed. 



Ordinarily in Cuban seed beds im- 

 mensely greater quantities of seed are 

 used than there is any necessity for. 

 Good seed should never be thickly 

 planted in the permanent seed bed, and 

 poor seed should never be used at alb 

 One gram should be plenty for each 

 square yard of seed bed. This would be 

 about an even teaspoouful. To insure 

 even distribution the seed should be 

 thoroughly mixed with many times the 

 amount of finely pulverized soil taken 

 from the same bed Avhen it is ready to 

 plant. At the rate above mentioned there 

 will be required about ten pounds of seed 

 to the acre of seedbed. When it is con- 

 sidered that good Cuban seed often runs 

 five million to the pound, it will be 

 recognized that a good margin for losses 

 and non-germination is still left. 

 Scarcely any Cuban seed as now placed 



