The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1913-06-27
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES

transplanted in the fields with so little
difficulty as the present season. Timely
rains have kept the soil in such fine
condition that there has been but a
trifing loss in getting the plants trans
ferred from the beds to the fields. so
the growth has hardly been interrupted
in making the change. There has been
but little resetting to be done and the
fields have almost perfect stand of
plants that have quickly taken root and
are coming along in satisfactory man.
ner. The plant beds, which were late
and slow in getting started, came for
ward so rapidly under improved wealth
er conditions that growers have not
had to delay the transplanting much
since the work started, and the close
of the month will see the great bulk of
the crop safely pitched in the fields at
as early date as is often the case in
this state.
- 80
s.Tobacco Breeding in Connecticut
is the title of recent bulletin issued
by the Connecticut experiment station
at New Haven, under the joint author
ship of H. K. Hayes, E. M. East and
e. G. Beinhart. It is discussion of
the progress of the breeding work on
tobacco that is being done by the sta
tion in cooperation with the U. 5. De-
partment and Bussey Institution of
Harvard. Although of technical ma
ture, the authors present several I'M
portant facts for the tobacco breeder.
For the purposes of the studies four
varieties of tobacco were used-Broad-
leaf, Havana Seed, Sumatra and Cuban.
Two of each of these were used as par
ents in three crosses made. All seed
plants were bagged at blossoming time,
and each section was grown IN rows
where the actual value of each could
be observed. They were then cured,
fermented and sorted, and an interest
ing table of values is given showing the
relative worth of each selection along
side of the standard varieties, Havana
Seed and Cuban. The Havana Seed
and Sumatra cross was originated by
the Department of Agriculture and ex-
pertinent station in 1903, and was rath-
er widely grown over the Connecticut
valley for number of years, attaining
IFS maximum acreage in 1909. This
cross was named the Halliday Havana
in honor of Mr.. Edmund Halladay of
Sufield, who is in a large measure re-
sponsible for it's production. But this
tobacco did not conform to the trade
demands on account Of its lacking IN
grain and burn, and contained a larger
percentage of coarse leaves. The au-
thors show. that this was due to lack
of purity in this strain at that time,
and state, ''The apparent uniformity OF
the Halladay type in 1908 has proved
to be of only superficial nature. Our
results show that the Halliday Havana
resulted from recombination OF par
entail characters in which the number
of leaves and leaf shape of the Suma-
ira were united with the leaf size and
habit of growth of the Havana. 1t
seems fair to conclude that by selection
we have been able to isolate different
lines that approach pure condition. :.
The relative values of the experimental
selections were compared with Havana
Seed grown under similar conditions,
and assuming the value of the Havana
as 100, the experimental types ranged
in value from 742 to 1926. In order
to further test the genetic laws found
in their Halliday work, the authors
studied two more crosses, BrOadleaf on
Sumatra and Cuban on Havana Seed.
Number of leaves, size and shape OF
leaf were the characters used, and 1t
was found that each one of these char
acters is inherited separately, and that
the quality of the finished leaf was not
found to be associated with any OF the
external characters, but is found to be
uniform when the other characters are
so found. While nothing of present
commercial value has been secured,
several of the selections show promise.
While the bulletin is essentially re-
port of progress, several conclusions OF
interest to the tobacco grower are
given. It,appears that in a hybrid the
first generation is as uniform as the
parents and of an intermediate value
in those characters by which the plants
differ. In the second generation the
variability is increased and often new
forms come into being due to the re-
combination of parental characters.
Seed is saved from those plants which
llOSG ll0dIly dpHlOGIn CAlC AOOAAOA " ~
and selection is continued in row tests
in the third and succeeding generations
until the desired form is attained. A
point is ultimately reached where fur
ther selection will be of no avail. The
production of fixed forms which contain
desirable plant characters is complex
problem, and the length of time which
it takes to produce uniform type will
depend largely upon the number of
plants which can be grown IN the Sec
ond generation, and the number of row
tests which can be grown in the sue
ceeding generations.
-.
On December 29, 1910, decree issued
by Napoleon created the Tobacco Reggie
and reserved to the national govern
ment monopoly of the importation,
manufacture and sale of tobacco in all
its forms. 1t was estimated that this
monopoly would add 80, 100000 francs
to the annual receipts from taxation.
While this expectation was not imme-
diately realized, few years later the
estimate was more than met. The rev.
enues from that source have continued
to increase as the practice of smoking