18 



very thin "body, and consequently were too prominent when wrapped 

 in cigars. 



It thus becomes very desirable to breed a special type of wrapper 

 leaf for shade growing and outside growing, and also a special type 

 of filler tobacco. Such types would undoubtedly greatly increase the 

 value of the Porto Rico tobacco crop. 



EXPERIMENTS IN GROWING, CURING, AND FERMENTING 



TOBACCO. 



As a result of the above-described preliminary investigations it 

 was concluded that Porto Rico presents very favorable conditions 

 for the production of considerable high-grade tobacco, but that the 

 extension of such a business would necessarily be confined to suit- 

 able soil areas and favorable climatic environments. The investiga- 

 tions also show that for the most part the methods employed by the 

 planters are primitive, and that there is great need of their adopting 

 more up-to-date methods. It was decided, therefore, to undertake 

 experiments with growing, curing, and fermenting tobacco. 



Owing to the limited funds available for this work it was necessary 

 to arrange for cooperation with an interested tobacco grower. Such 

 an arrangement was entered into with a planter near Aguas Buenas, 

 the latter giving the use of land, labor, buildings, and material, in so 

 far as it did not interfere with his regular business. The facilities 

 offered by the equipment of the ordinary planters are, at the best, in 

 many ways unsatisfactory for experimental purposes, and because 

 the funds available would not permit the necessary modification of 

 these conditions some of the experiments undertaken failed. A 

 report of such of the Avork as is of value follows : 



SEED-BED EXPERIMENTS. 



Several seed beds were made, each 3.5 feet wide by 18 feet long. 

 The earth was raised a few inches above the general level in bed 

 form, and the sides of the beds supported by old boards or poles. 

 One half of the beds was shaded by a removable straw shade and 

 the other half remained without shade. The shade was supported 

 on poles about 1 feet above the beds. (PI. I, figs. 1 and 2.) 



Imported Habana, Connecticut Habana, Florida Sumatra, imported 

 Sumatra, and Porto Rico seed were sown, each in a separate bed, 

 half with shade and half without. The records show that the seeds 

 in the shaded portion of the beds came up from two to four days 

 earlier than those in the unshaded portion. 



After the plants were all well up the straw shades were removed 

 for a short time each day early in the morning and late in the after- 

 noon. The time of exposure was gradually increased, and eventually 

 the plants were shaded only from 10 a. m. to 3 p. m. A few days 

 before transplanting to the fields the shade was removed and the 

 plants exposed throughout the day in order to toughen them and 



