Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-07-17

| SOOQ over the result. Inc cost Oh the WLoio
| tobacco investigation has been trtning,
| compared with the results that will follow
| this season alone in any one OF the tobacco
| states The farmers are pleased ana
| bacco trust, which will have to pay consid-
| erably more for its leaf tobacco than pre-
| viously In several of the states But that Is
another part of the same story.
+ Right Around Washington.
| Right around Washington there are now
| three model tobacco farms that have been
run strictly on the lines laid down by the
| department and under the supervision OF
! the department experts. This Is of inter-
| est locally. for all OF them are within
| street car distance of the city and they
| are practical examples of what can be done
! without spending cent of money on I'M
| provements.
| The three plantations that the depart
ment has under it's particular supervision
| are those of the agricultural experiment
station at College Park, Md. the planta-
ton of =. H. Drury at Lyons Creek. Md:
| and that Of Franklin Weems, secretary OF
! the Maryland Tobacco Growers Association
| at Upper Marlboro, Md. Particular atten-
| ton is called to the plantation of Mr.
Weems as 1t was planted from the seed
of a single type plant selected off his own
| farm
Attention has been called In The Star
| previously to some Of the work of the
| tobacco division of the bureau of plant
|
| for the benefit of those who are not IA
millar with the methods of tobacco cul-
! ture. The tobacco plant is self-polleniz-
| ing plant, and If the seed of single plant
| Is not interfered with from the outside, that
| is II the seed tassel is protected and not
| crossed with the pollen of any other plant
| 1t will reproduce true to the type of the
| parent plant. OF course, some of the seed
| are better than others, but the larger
| heavier seed are the best, and the experts
of the department have devised a simple
| little machine for separating the good seed
| from the poorer 1t is glass tube about
| eight feet long and two inches In diameter,
! connected at the bottom with a small foot
bellows. A handful of seed are placed In
| the tube A blast OF air is sent through the
bottom of the tube and the lighter seed
| and trash is blown out while the good seed
remain The seed are smaller than mustard
seed and each plant bears about million
| of them, so that the seed from one plant
will set out a good-siZed tobacco farm.
| Nor, It Ss.s been proved by long expe-
| rience that when seed Is carelessly selected,
| and good, bad and Indifferent planted alike,
| ths field OF tobacco Is spotted" Some OF
the plants are runts, some are freaks with
| long split leaves that look more like a
| palm tree than a tobacco plant and others
| are good plants, some OF them very good.
| Selected and Protected Seed.
II the seed from one of the very best
| plants are saved and protected by small
| paper bag from contamination by the pol
| len Of the poor plants, crop can be raised
| the next year that is uniform and of much
heavier average weight than the previous
crop. All this sounds very simple. Is sim
| Pile in fact. But 1t took good while to
! work out the theory in practice and prove
| that it was so. But the proof has been
| produced and this year Is the first time
| that the method Is being freely tried on
big scale. In fact. the silk stocking farm
| ers" of the department had a good deal
| of opposition to contend with when they
| first went into the field. and even after
| their methods were proved a success. and
| many of the farmers were saving and pro-
| tecting their choice seed under paper bags,
| there were many planters who were SEEM
ingly ashamed to climb aboard the band
| wagon and who did protect some of the
! best seed, but did it in a little patch some
where off out OF sight of the road
| But the thing Is now practical success
| and Is being adopted all over the tobacco
belt while the three farms around Wash
| ington are examples of which the depart
| ment is particularly proud. The results as
| a rule are to about double the production
| of a tobacco plantation and to make bet
| ter and more even grade of leaf. For in
| stance, seven or eight hundred pounds Of
| tobacco to an acre was about the average
! yield of Maryland field under the old hit
| and miss system. The new selected fields
cut as much 200 or even l. 400 pounds
| to the acre, and 1t is decidedly better to-
| bacco.
| Improving the Quality.
| Back of the seed selection for a big yield
| there is the question OF improving the
! quality. and this Is being done by selecting
seed from particular plants that have the
| desired quality in the size and shape of
| the leaf and the proper burn" aroma and
| ash. But these are technical details In
| which the practical tobacco farmer is moro
| interested than is the Iayman.
But what some Of the more intimate
breeding and selection and breeding are do
| ing may be shown in the tobacco raised In
| Florida. This is largely wrapper tobacco
| for cigars, and the Sumatra seed has been
| imported, bred and worked over till a
plant Is being produced that is almost a
| new type of tobacco Reports that have
been made to the department say that
| plants from the selected seed bear from
| twenty-f five to twenty-six workable leaves
against sixteen or seventeen leaves on the
! old plants This tobacco Is grown under
| artificial shade and is expensive to raise.
| but 1t sells for about sixty cents per
pound up. SO that 1t Is easy to see that such
an increase means great deal of money
per acre to the farmer.
/ Seed selection in the tobacco business Is
| now thoroughly established practice and
4 the virtue OF 1t Is now to be seen almost
| within walking distance Of the Agricultural
| DEPARTMENT, and the experta are Y,retfv