5 



of any district where soil sonditions are correct. Monotony of 

 daily and seasonal temperatures are characteristic of Hawaii, so 

 that the rainfall or the ability to irrigate the crop, when required, 

 become of greater importance than any consideration of actual 

 temperatures. 



In the windward districts, protection from wind must be pro- 

 vided. This may be accomplished either by tenting the field with 

 cotton cloth, as in Connecticut and Florida, or, permitting the 

 larger ohia trees to remain when the land is cleared; or, in case 

 tobacco is planted on lands cleared for cane or other "open-field" 

 crops, by planting or constructing suitable windbreaks. In the 

 leeward districts, the protection from wind may be neglected. 



THE INFLUENCE OF GOOD SEED. 



The necessity of procuring the best seed is a factor not to 

 be neglected or minimized. The final test, as to the value of a 

 crop of tobacco, does not come for at least a year after the seed 

 is sown, and, in the case of the finer cigar wrapper and filler types, 

 not for two or three years. Each year, more and more attention 

 is being given to the selection of good seed. Tobacco seeds are 

 extremely minute. An ounce, if every seed were good, would 

 produce plants enough to plant several acres. It will be absolutely 

 necessary for planters in Hawaii to save their own seed from the 

 best individual plants of the best strains to the end, that a race 

 of tobacco, adapted to local conditions, may be developed. 



CULTIVATION AND FERTILIZERS. 



Tobacco is a crop that re-pays the planter in proportion to the 

 ratio of cultivation and attention that he gives it. It is not a crop 

 that can be left to care for itself. Constant and painstaking su- 

 pervision of every detail toward the making of the crop will well 

 repay the cultivator. Tobacco is essentially a hoed crop. Weeds 

 are plants growing out of place. Any plant, except tobacco, in a 

 tobacco field is a weed and must be kept down. Cultivation and 

 fertilizers must be used and applied for the purpose of maintain- 

 ing an even, rapid growth, for there is no doubt that uniform 

 rapidity of growth has its influence on the quality of the finished 

 product. Light applications of nitrate of soda, at intervals during 

 the growth of the plant, will do much to promote this required 

 uniformity. 



