The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1921-04-02
MADE TO ORDER PLANT
FIRST EYER KNOWN
New Plant Developed at Connecticut
Agricultural Experiment Station
Is a Cigar Wrapper.

| Cambridge, Mass, April 2.--What is
claimed to be the first plant actually
made to order according to specifica
tions listed in advance, has been de.
veloped by, Professor Edward NJ. East
of Harvard for the Connecticut agricul-
tural experiment station at New Ha-
ven, Conn.
The new plant. known as Round
Tip, is cigar wrapper tobacco eombin.
ing, it Is claimed, the desirable quail
ties of several existing varieties and
none of their defects and possessing
several worthwhile characteries I'M
known in the older varieties. 1t was
produced by scientific application of
the laws of heredity, with the ihvesti.
CATION of which Professor East has
been identified for many years.
New varieties of plants are not par
ticularly rare, it is said, and new
names for old varieties are as common
as freckles on a red .headed boy, but
in the past, according to the Harvard
biologists, the new things in the plant
world have been more or less acciden.
tai. Crosses, they say, have been made
Unfortunately, trusting TO provi-
denee that something good would turn
up; and occasionally providence has
come to the rescue.
In this case study Of cigar Leaf
wrappers WAS made, and the Character.
istics demanded by grower, manufae.
turer and consumer were set down as
cold bloodedly as a builder would plan !
the requirements for house Exist {.
ing varieties were then examined in the |
field and ia the warehouse with the |
minutest care, seeking those which |
when combined would give the greatest
possible chance of successt Finally it /
was decided the success Of the project /
depended on crossing the two varieties
Sumatra and Broadleaf..
Why these varieties were selected
and how the scheme was carried out
is long and technical story Suffice
it TO say that a knowledge Of the
principles of inheritance was the basis.
Through these principles the work
could be carried out with no greater
loss of time and with as much certain
ty of reaching the end in view as that
of a chemist in producing a new tooth
paste. The result was the Round Tip.
The Round Tip" said Professor
East TO day, "has the large leaf and
the close arrangement. of leaves charac-
teristic of the Brosdleaf variety. The
leaves grow upright a. do those Of the
Sumatra, thus eliminating the loss
from torn leaves which so often re
suits from the' dropping leaves Of the
other parent. The leaf is even broader
than the Sumatra, and so increases me
yield of cigar wrappers, Since the
Brosdleaf is too thick and has too
pronounced a flavor for most smokers
and since the Sumstra Is too thin and
has no flavor, the new tobacco was
made intermediate in these respects.
Finally the Round Tip developes six
or seven more leaves than the old va
rites. possesses a wonderful root-svs-
tenn. making il stand up under winds
that lay other tcAaccos low, and has
/ resistance to root rot which came TO
I nv accident rather than by design.
The Round Tip has been distrib-
ited to Connecticut tobacco growers
~ DIR. Donald r. Jones. former nj
III AZ Harvard, who is now connected
With the Connecticut agricultural ex-
station. II has had a three
rear test, and has been reported on
W some forty odd planters Crops Of
800 pounds per acre, double the yield
( ordinary varieties. have been obtained
Inder exceptional conditions. and on
he average 2.Ooo<pounds NAV BE- con.
Identity expected. But what pleases
-s most il that BY this experiment We
ave demonstrated that the true fun
amentsl principles Of plant breeding
which We have spent year, in studying
an he applied to a specific problem
With sneh useful results"
Professor Fast holds the chair II ex-
'erimental plant morph0logv AZ the
'ussey institution, the department Of
harvard university devoted ~ the re-
earch and instruction in applied biol
~. He IL the author 81 several vol
,nes q technical papers On hereditv.
nd in collaboration with Dr Jones.
a work on the effects " ATn-
reediuu and Outbreedinr~ IN animals
I'd plants and the hearing q the re-
ults On the upbuildinE q nations