Miscellaneous. 



[November, 1911. 



required, to enable me to judge the 

 work and conditions, for which my most 

 cordial thanks are due him. 



I went carefully over the non-irrigable 

 and irrigable tobacco land, seed-beds, 

 tobacco fields, sheds, and last, but not 

 the least, studied carefully the quality 

 of the leaf of last year's crop. Notes 

 were made of the rainfall returns, of 

 which copy is annexed. The area under 

 cultivation was estimated, the condition 

 of the crop in the field and quality of 

 soils were noted ; the tobacco piles and 

 the sorting of leaf were observed, and 

 samples of different grades were taken 

 for further investigation purposes, if 

 required ; photographs were taken of 

 the two fields and the tobacco shed, 

 which will help the Committee in form- 

 ing an idea of the present actual 

 condition. 



Opinion on Field Work. 

 Non-irrigahle Land. —On the non- 

 irrigable land it was intended (according 

 to information received on my first visit) 

 to plant an area of about 20 acres. On 

 my second visit, however, 1 did not find 

 more than about an acre planted, and in 

 a very bad condition, as may be seen 

 from the photograph " A," owing to 

 want of rain perhaps. The plants on 

 the photograph are more than two 

 months old. The soil on this portion is 

 a red loamy soil with a small amount of 

 sand, which looks to be an excellent 

 soil for tobacco culture, provided the 

 chemical composition is such that a good 

 burning power can be expected. How- 

 ever, if the chosen planting season is 

 altogether wrong (as has been apparently 

 the case in the present experiments), no 

 good results can be expected. The 

 rainfall returns and the character of the 

 soil indicate clearly that, if a fast- 

 growing tobacco crop is our aim, a little 

 over two inches of monthly rainfall (as 

 is the average during six years in 

 January, February, and March) is far 

 too low for the conditions. If therefore 

 the planting had been started towards 

 the beginning of, or probably about the 

 middle of, November and finished by 

 the end of December or thereabout, an 

 excellent crop could have been expected, 

 although nothing can be said as to what 

 kind, variety, or type of tobacco would 

 show the best results. The most im- 

 portant experiment necessary to answer 

 this question has not been carried out, 

 which would have undoubtedly given 

 useful information. , 



I quite admit that, if the so-called 

 "dry land farming" principle with 

 constant cultivation had been applied 

 on this plot, instead of simply following 



exactly the Sumatra (where conditions 

 are totally different) way of field treat- 

 ment, a much better crop would have 

 been produced, and, in addition, by 

 using self-bred seed, which have shown 

 adaptability to the local conditions, 

 great improvement could ha\e been 

 effected. 



Irrigable Land. — With regard to the 

 irrigable tobacco field, with a gravelly 

 gray loamy soil, I only found about 

 two acres planted out, the plants doing 

 very badly indeed for the same reason 

 as before stated. 



The effect of shade was clearly shown 

 in plants growing under the shade of 

 trees doing much better than their 

 fellows ; they were, however, not free 

 from the effects of the conditions above 

 indicated. The same remarks apply to 

 this plot as that which is non-irrigable. 

 The effect of shade is mentioned to 

 indicate the expected improvement for 

 cigar wrapper leaf by planting in rainy 

 or cloudy season ; this also promotes 

 quicker growth, and result in top leaves 

 giving shade to lower leaves. Shade 

 makes the leaf finer, rib thinner, and 

 colour lighter. 



Seedlings.— During my first visit I 

 observed the seedlings in the seed-beds 

 and noted that they were sown much 

 too thickly, and in consequence were 

 long-stemmed with undeveloped root 

 system, and were already too large for 

 transplanting purposes. It is a well- 

 known fact that such seedlings have not 

 much resisting power to withstand the 

 shock of transplanting, and are much 

 more liable to disease and insect attacks. 

 To this and the ravages done by the 

 tobacco stem borer is due the great loss 

 of plants in this field. Thinner sowing, 

 transplanting at earlier stage, and 

 covering in the seed-bed with muslin 

 cloth would have prevented this loss 

 (see my Farmers' Bulletin No. 71, 

 Tobacco Seed-beds). The muslin cloth 

 covering is used to prevent the moth of 

 the borer depositing its eggs on the 

 foliage of the seedlings which are 

 carried with them to the field at trans- 

 planting time. 



Resuming the field work, it can be 

 said that — 

 (a) The planting season was probably 



wrongly chosen ; 

 (6) When attempts were made to 

 grow tobacco out of season, more 

 or less "dry land farming" 

 principles should be applied in- 

 stead of simply imitating work 

 as is done in other countries 

 where conditions are totally 

 different ; 



