The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-06-04
AID or SCIENCE INVOKED.
Experiments in TObaccOi Raising by
 Hockanum StatiOns

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 The Hockanum experiment station of the bureau of plant industry of the department of agriculture has assumed a businesslike air, says the Courant. Professor Archibald D. Shamel, who has charge of the experiments in the Connecticut Valley, and Sunday that the work of the coming season would be nores elaborate than heretofore. The bureau iof plant industry will cooper ate with the Connecticut experiment. station in running three sets of experi- ments in Hockanum, Granby and Suf- field, each field comprising two. acres. On these model plantations the import ant breeding and selection of plants of broadleaf and Havana seed tobacco and the hybrids will be continued. In the shade-grown work, two acres will be raised for the breeding of the best strains of Cuban Sumatra and Ha- vana seed for shade culture and an ad- ditional three-acre tent will be main tained to ascertain the exact cost of production of Cuban and Sumatra un- der cloth in, the Connecticut Valley.
 The seed bed investigation Is now going on, the beds under observation being divided to show the effect of the different means of sterilization for the elimination of "thielavia basicola," or root rot, fungus which worked havoc last year in the seed beds and fields and has reappeared this year in untreated beds with renewed vigor. The best means of sterilization yet found is by steam forced into the ground before planting. The ground is subjected to heat of 180 degrees for one hour, which clears the bed of the fungus as well as killing all weed seeds. Another method is by use of formaldehyde, a sure remedy for the fungus but of no effect on weed seed. A third means is by burning over the affected ground. This is effective, but after the first year exhausts the humus in the soil and is undesirable. From the experi- ments, the government hopes to ascer- tain the best rieans of sterilization and report the results of tho tests.
 Equally important in tobacco culture with seed selection Is the study of fer tilizeres and curing. Tn consideration of the fertilizers the government has es- tablished two stations, one in Granby and the other in Windsor, to make scientific comparisons of the different requirements of the soil. Ground feld- spar as a substitute for potash is un- dergoing an exhaustive three-year test. Comparative tests of cotton seed meal, castor pumace, and manure as pro- | ducers of nitrogen are being started, as 1 well as similar comparisons between potassium carbonate, double manure salts and cotton hull ashes for potash. | Various combinations of lime are to | be tried as effecting the free burn of the cured leaf. Cover crops, especially of vetch planted in rotation, are being tested with splendid results in the re- | tention of nitrogen for the tobacco plants.
 It Is a common experience where land has been fertilized every year for long series of years with the same nanures 1 that plants become less able to with stand disease. Not only in tobacco culture is this true, but asparagus rust, "dibeck'' or root rot in orange trees and the wilt fungus and root disease of cotton plants are directly traced to this cause. Tn several cases where land has run out" for tobacco, the government has inaugurated a series of experi- ments to cover several years to learn the best means to -aeGover the produc- tiveness of the soil.
 In the laboratories in Washington the burn and stretch of Connecticut Valley tobacco have been studied with great care and new field of investigation has been opened in the tests for com parative parts of nicotine in different plants. Plants vary in nicotine con, tents from 16 per cent. to 6 per cent and by seed selection and continued study it Is expected that in the future strains of tobacco with known ant constant proportion of nicotine will bt produced. The more nicotine in the leaf the stronger the tobacco and vice versa, and from a foreknowledge oi
 the nicotine properties of differen
 strains of tobacco, the grower will bt able to produce a strong or mild tobac, co as his particular trade demands This nicotine study in seed selection i: