American Agriculturist, September 15,1923 
177 
Lancaster Tobacco Growers 
Hold Field Tour 
W. L. CALKINS 
O N Monday, August 20, 1923, about 
eighty of the members of the Lan¬ 
caster County Tobacco Growers’ As¬ 
sociation participated in their annual 
tour of inspection and field day, under 
the direction of F. S. Bucher, the 
county agent of the Lancaster County 
Farm Bureau. 
The first stop was made at the farm 
of J. N. Lindeman, south of Washing¬ 
ton Boro, and an examination made of 
his fine field of Havana tobacco. This 
field has been in tobacco for five years 
past, rye having been sown as a cover 
crop after tobacco harvest. The second 
stop was at the farm of B. F. Hiestand, 
were a field of 22 acres of especially 
fine seed leaf of the Slaughter variety 
was admired, among which were six 
rows of the Hibshman variety, that 
showed even better quality than the 
Slaughter. 
Then stops were made at the farms 
of Daniel Erb, in Donegal township, 
who has about 14 acres, that is well 
advanced and will soon be ready to 
cut; Mr. Strickler, near the old Done¬ 
gal Presbyterian Church (founded in 
1722), where, besides viewing a fine 
crop of tobacco, the party enjoyed a 
bountiful lunch as guests of Mr. and 
Mrs. Strickler, assisted by some of 
their neighbors. 
The first stop in the afternoon was 
at the Kauffman farm, south of Lan- 
disville, where Harry Swarr has six 
acres of splendid tobacco, stalks ex¬ 
amined having 14 and 15 leaves. This 
appeared to be of the Slaughter 
variety. 
From Landisville the party fol¬ 
lowed the State roads through East 
Petersburg, Neffsville, and Akron to 
the Hibshman farm at Ephrata, where 
is located the experiment plots of the 
U. S. Department of Agriculture and 
Pennsylvania State College, which are 
in charge of Otto Olson. These plots 
were examined and Mr. Olson gave an 
interesting talk. 
These plots did not show the usual 
results from the different methods of 
fertilization, for the reason that the 
season has been so dry that the plants 
did not have sufficient moisture to use 
the fertilizer available. 
Mr. Olson stated that the past ex¬ 
periments have shown that 1,000 
pounds stable manure, 500 pounds cot¬ 
ton-seed meal, 200 pounds sulphate of 
potash, and 300 pounds of acid phos¬ 
phate, to the acre, has given best re¬ 
sults, as compared with cost of fer¬ 
tilization. He strongly recommended 
“double manure salts” (a German 
product containing about 30 per cent 
potash). However, this year Lancas¬ 
ter County growers had been able to 
procure but little, the Connecticut 
growers having taken the supply com¬ 
ing to this country. Steps were being 
taken to get a supply for future use, 
for $20 per ton or less. He said that 
German potash is suited to tobacco 
(American potash containing too much 
borax), and that muriate of potash was 
not a good tobacco fertilizer, and tends 
to make the leaf too dark in color. 
One of the ends sought at the ex¬ 
periment station is to produce a mild 
cigar tobacco, and that the percentage 
of nicotine had been reduced from 3 
per cent to one-half of 1 per cent. Ex¬ 
periments are also being conducted with 
four kinds of Rustica tobacco, running 
as high. as 10 per cent nicotine, for 
use in insecticides. One kind having 
been recently imported from the Congo 
region in Africa. 
The two best varieties of Lancaster 
County cigar tobacco thus far produced 
are the Slaughter and the Hibshman. 
The Slaughter has shown high resist¬ 
ance to rust and to pole-burn, but 
Hibshman is considered still better, 
giving an average yield of about 300 
pounds per acre over other varieties. 
It also gives a tobacco better grade, 
texture, and color. It is a cross, made 
some twelve years ago, of the Slaughter 
on the Taylor. It also has the advan¬ 
tage of more upright leaves spaced 
farther apart on the stalk. 
The Olson is a variety that was de¬ 
veloped especially for the Clinton 
County growers, who require a tobacco 
maturing earlier than is required in 
Lancaster County. 
The party then hastened to Ephrata 
Park, where dinner was served, after 
which many interesting “talks” were 
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606 So. Michigan Ave. 
of America 
( Incorporated ) 
listened to. Frank P. Willets, Penn¬ 
sylvania Secretary of Agriculture, 
stated that he knew more about mush¬ 
room growing than tobacco culture, but 
gave some instructive statistics on to¬ 
bacco production, and closed by giving 
some important information in regard 
to the Japanese beetle, and the meth¬ 
ods taken and in contemplation to 
check its spread. 
F. D. Gardner, head of the Farm 
Department of the Pennsylvania State 
College, spoke of general farm condi¬ 
tions, as well as those relating par¬ 
ticularly to tobacco, and urged the pro¬ 
duction of quality rather than mere 
quantity. P. W. Baker of Landisville, 
among other things, urged Lancaster 
County farmers to keep more land in 
grass, and apply their labor and fertil¬ 
izer to a smaller acreage of plow land. 
L. Rupin of Akron made some pithy 
remarks and caused some hearty 
laughter by an application of some 
humorous stories to the farmers’ con¬ 
dition, as he viewed it. 
It was stated at the meeting that 
present conditions showed an 85 per 
cent tobacco crop in the State. How¬ 
ever, it would seem throughout Lan¬ 
caster County (where 80 per cent of 
the Pennsylvania tobacco is grown) 
that unless* there is a combination 
of exceptionally moist and growing 
weather during the remainder of the 
season, with no frosts until very late, 
a much smaller percentage may be 
expected. 
In the average field it is uneven 
and stunted, on account of the excep¬ 
tional dry weather, and adverse con¬ 
ditions at the time of transplanting, 
although the color is good, with little 
rust yet appearing, and no wildfire. 
While an unusual amount of tobacco- 
is reported in the hands of packers 
and manufacturers, a large proportion 
of this is of the lower grades, and 
growers who are fortunate enough to 
harvest and cure a prime crop should 
receive a good price. 
Mr. Olson stated that Havana tobac¬ 
co in Bradford County was being sold 
at 30 cents in the field, and growers 
of. Havana in this county should re¬ 
ceive even a better price for crops of 
a good quality. 
PENNSYLVANIA NOTES 
OLIVER D. SCHOCK 
Early varieties of potatoes proved 
disappointing in yield, owing to the 
protracted drought. Even the Irish 
Cobbler failed of its usual prolific 
yield. Russet and other late varieties 
were better favored by rains and will 
produce a larger crop. The Colorado 
beetle was less in evidence and more 
readily controlled by modern methods 
of potato culture. 
Pennsylvania buckwheat will fall 
fully one million bushels short of last 
year’s yield, according to the latest of¬ 
ficial estimates. The crop of 1922 was 
5,208,000 bushels, while the present 
forecast for 1923 is 4,283,000 bushels. 
The buckwheat production, as usual, 
far exceeds that of any other State. 
New York ranks second in yield, esti¬ 
mated at 3,887,000 bushels. Twenty 
States are classed as non-producing 
buckwheat sections of the United 
States, and depend upon the East for 
their supply of buckwheat flour. 
The threatened reduction in the acre¬ 
age of wheat to be sown in eastern 
Pennsylvania this fall will be a reality. 
The decrease will probably be between 
10 and 15 per cent. No white wheat 
is grown in this section, the long-berry 
red variety having supplanted all other 
varieties. 
Family trade prices of milk contain¬ 
ing 3 V 2 per cent of buttterfat at pres¬ 
ent are as follows: Harrisburg, 13c; 
Philadelphia, 13-15c; Reading, 12-14c; 
Pittsburgh, 14c; Erie, 14c. Fall pas¬ 
turage has improved. Cattle are in a 
good condition. 
Pennsylvania produced an almost 
normal yield of peaches, and prices are 
regarded as fairly satisfactory, rang¬ 
ing from 50 cents to $2 per basket. 
