Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-04

out more than SIT 900 900 for it, or more
than 80 cents per pound. The cost of our
imported tobacco last year was greater
still, for some of it we paid SO ard up
ward per pound What the Agricultural
Department is trying to do is to teach
our tobacco growers to raise this expensive
product at home. Experiments to that ef-
feet are being made in Connecticut and
Florida. and the discoveries of the present
year promise success. They also show
that the general grade of tobacco over the
whole United States can be raised, ana
the value of the crop made enormously
greater.
Farming in Tents.
The fancy tobacco farming which is now
going on is perhaps the most expensive
farming on earth. There are plantations
in Connecticut which annually cost $1,000
an acre to run, not including the cost of
the land On these plantations the seed is
sown in hot beds heated by steam pipes and
covered with glass, and the plants are set
out under great tents, after acre
being covered with cloth supported by
posts, in order to give the plants about
the same temperature as they nave IN the
tropical countries from where our 1lnest
tobacco leaves come. Let me give you the
cost of a single acre of such tobacco rails
ing. The plantation l speak of is an lrrl-
gated one and it cost about S40o an acre
for water Its cover costs $500 per acre,
fertilizer 500 per acre, cultivation and
planting 500, and in addition there are
other expenses which bring up the total
cost to about $1,000.
Sumatra Tobacco in Connecticut.
Experiments like this have been attempt
ed on large scale in Connecticut. There
are thousands of acres under cloth. Inc
planters have found that they have Soil
about like that of Sumatra, and by this
cloth they get a climate much the same.
They have taken Sumatra tobacco seed and
PLANTED It, and in this way are attempting
to raise the costly Sumatra tobacco wrap
pers used for our choice cigars.
What has been their success?
Until this year they have practically
failed The Sumatra seed brought into
Connecticut in 1901 left it's original type,
and through the difference of soil and ell
mate broke up into hundreds OF different
types each distinct in itself. The success
ors of these types made other types, and
the planters were in despair. Some of the
types had the large round Sumatra leaf
which is so valuable, for SIX cigar wrappers
can be cut out of it, but others were long
and stringy and more like shoestrings than
the valuable Sumatra type.
This was the case when the scientists OF
the Agricultural Department began to study
the matter and to experiment With II. Mr.
A. D. Shamel, whose work in corn l have
already referred to, was sent to Cuba to
study the tobacco there. He went to Con-
necticut and experimental. and after
time found that by taking certain plants
which had the proper Sumatra leaf and
covering them with bags to prevent the In
sects from bringing any pollen from other
plants to fertilZe them, that the SEED grown
inside those bag plants would, when plant
ed. reproduce all the characteristics OF the
original plants. The male and the 1emaIe
elements of the tobacco plant are found on
the same stem, but you may nave high
grade tobacco plant and bee or otner IN
Sect which has come from some poor
starved mongrel plant of the same race
NAV carry on it's legs some OF the polien
which will fertilize the former plant The
aynerimenters prevented this by the bags,
and they have now found that when they
get a plant of the right kind they can re-
produce it without limit.
The Little Tobacco Seed.
What this means can only be appreciated
by those who understand something Oh TO-
bacco and the seed.
How big do you think tobacco SEED IS!
The pIant grows to be taller than man.
Tt has leaves from twenty 10 hIty ihcnes
long and from three to eighteen inches
vide one would think the seed might be
fbe size Of walnut. 1t is. In fact. about
the smallest seed known. 1 have before me
a bottle about half the length of my little
anger and not so large around. 1t contains
d 600 such seeds. Each seed is not much
bigger than the point of a pin. Neverthe-
less 1t produces this mighty plant, and,
more wonderful still, on the plant will
grow from 500,O 600 to 100000 seeds. single
seed of tobacco will in one planting produce
half a million children. 1t will furnish
enough seed to plant 100 acres of tobacco,