230 : [ASSEMBLY 
plant bed, which makes it possible to practice selection at the outset 
by setting only the plants that make a vigorous start. 
EFFECT OF SPLITTING THE STALK UPON THE WEIGHT OF CURED 
LEAF. 
Last year we compared the weights, green and cured, of plants hung 
with twine, and with the spear. Our results indicated a slight loss 
in weight in those hung with the spear. We have continued our ex-_ 
periments upon this point with the following result : 
YIELD. 
One hundred pounds green tobacco, hung with: | Core leaf, gtoms. Ibs 
S. y : 
Hook, stems not split at all, yielded............. 10-84 16.14 
Spear, stems slightly. split. wii as eek eae osm a cee 11.03 13.07 
Stems split nearly the whole lenghth............. 9.24 6.81 



The average yield of cured leaf from one hundred pounds of green 
tobacco topped at various times, was 9.63 pounds. It appears 
therefore that in this case both the plants hung with the hook and - 
the spear yielded more than the average weight of cured leaf and that. 
the yield from those hung with the spear was the larger. The weights 
of the stems, however, show clearly that the splitting hastens their 
drying, and in the plants of which the stems were split nearly the 
whole length, the weight of the cured leaf seems to have been mate- 
rially diminished. 
We handed sample leaves taken from each of the three methods of 
curing to a tobacco expert, who knew nothing of their treatment. 
The leaves from the staiks hung with the spear were pronounced per- 
ceptibly thinner than those from stalks hung with the hook, but not 
inferior to them in quality. Those from the stalks that were much 
split were pronounced very inferior in quality. 
If we average our results of 1882 and 1883, we find that the plants 
hung without splitting the stalk yielded 10.59 pounds of cured leaf 
to 100 pounds ef green plants, and those hung with the spear yielded 
10.15 pounds to the same weight of green plants. 
These experiments seem to indicate that splitting the stalk has a 
tendency to hasten its drying, and probably to hasten the drying of 
the leaf also, and that the tendency is to produce a thinner leaf, but 
in the amount of splitting that is usually practiced in using the spear 
the weight of cured leaf is not materially influenced. 
Some tobacco growers are of the opinion that plants harvested im- 
mediately after a heavy rain yield a lighter proportional weight of 
cured leaf than those harvested during a period of fair weather. 
Our observations on this point indicate that this opinion is entirely 
correct. A rainfall of almost two inches occurred on August 28, 29 
and 30. We harvested a few plants as soon as the leaves were dry on 
the 30th, others on the 31st, and again on September 3. ‘The influ- 
ence of the protracted rain is not perceptible in our weighings, because | 
the loss of weight occurred before the green plants were weighed. It 
is, however, easily perceptible in the quality and texture of the leaf. 
In the plants harvested August 30, the leaf is very thin and lacks oili- 
