1 
 
 
 CONNECTICUT 
 
 AGRICULIURIL EXPERIMENT STATION 
 
 NEW HAVEN, CONN. 
 
 BULLETIN 148, MARCH, 1905. 
 
 The Preparation of Tobacco Seed. 
 
 By a. D. Shamel, 
 
 Of the Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Department of Agriculture, in 
 cooperation with the Connecticut Agricultural Station, New Haven. 
 
 It has been proved by exact experiment, regarding many 
 kinds of agricultural seeds, that the seed which is heaviest (not 
 necessarily the largest or having the greatest specific gravity) 
 produces more vigorous and productive plants than lighter seed. 
 
 This is partly because the heavy seed has the most perfect 
 embyro or plantlet in it and the largest supply of available plant 
 food to support the seedling until it has developed roots and 
 leaves so as to feed itself. 
 
 One of the causes of freak tobacco plants, that is, such as top 
 out prematurely or differ in shape and quality of leaf from the 
 bulk of the crop, is the sowing of small and light seed. In a 
 series of extensive experiments in the Connecticut valley, the 
 writer separated samples of seed of the varieties grown in this 
 region, into light, medium and heavy grades. In all cases the 
 small and light seed produced the earliest plants in the seed bed, 
 and these plants when set in the field developed a large per- 
 
centage of undesirable plants which are almost a total loss to 
 the grower. 
 
 In crops like oats or wheat, if some of the seed fails or 
 produces poor plants, the rest of the plants stool out, and to 
 some extent mitigate the effect of the use of the poor seed. 
 In the tobacco crop, however, there is no compensation of this 
 kind. The sound plants grow no better because others are 
 inferior or tmthrifty and the inferior plants, mixed with the 
 others, damage the market value of the whole. 
 
 Dr. L. Trabut and other foreign experimenters have proved 
 that the plants grown from light seed produce not only a very 
 small yield, but the tobacco is of very inferior quality. The 
 light and the small tobacco seed can be removed by the grower, 
 now, before the seed is sowed in the seed bed, without any extra 
 cost. The increase in yield and improvement in quality of the 
 crop secured by this attention to the seed, is pure profit. It 
 costs no more to cultivate and grow a uniform crop of tobacco 
 than a crop with a large proportion of poor plants. Therefore 
 it is extremely important that the tobacco growers separate 
 out the light and small seed before sowing the seed beds. 
 
 Many of the light and inferior seeds are of the same size 
 as the heavy and desirable seed and the difference generally 
 between large and small seed is slight, so that it is not possible 
 to separate the desirable from the undesirable seed by screening 
 with any kind of sieves. 
 
 Some recommend water separation for lack of a better 
 method. The seed is thrown into a vessel of water and when 
 the heaviest seed have sunk to the bottom the light seed are 
 skimmed off. This plan is not a success because the bubbles 
 of air in the water prevent much of the heavy seed from sinking, 
 and the separation is thoroughly unsatisfactory. Other methods 
 have been recommended, but there are none so simple and 
 practicable as the use of the current of air. A complete sepa- 
 ration of the light and small froin the heavy seed can be made 
 by constructing a machine similar to one designed and used by 
 the writer. 
 
 This seed separator consists of a glass tube one inch in 
 diameter and five feet long, and a glass receptacle for holding 
 the seed, having the diameter of the long glass tube, and so 
 arrano-ed with a finelv woven wire screen in the bottom as to 
 
— 3— 
 
 hold the seed in the receptacle and at the same time freely 
 admit a current of air directly into the seed. The top of this 
 receptacle is fitted with a coupling into which the long glass tube 
 can be set and held in place. The current of air is generated by 
 a common foot-bellows, and regulated with a valve. 
 
 The seed to be separated is poured into the receptacle, usually 
 about one to two ounces at a time, the glass tube set in place, 
 and a current of air pumped into the seed. The lightest seed 
 and the chaff are first blown out of the tube, and next the 
 small seed. Small seeds of the same character as the larger 
 seeds have proportionally more surface than the larger, con- 
 sequently the small as well as the light seed is removed by this 
 machine. 
 
 No doubt great improvements will be made in the machines 
 for this purpose. Already Mr. D. P. Cooley of Granby, Conn., 
 who is cooperating with us in the improvement of Havana 
 seed tobacco by breeding and seed selection, has designed a 
 machine which is simple and practical. Mr. Cooley has sepa- 
 rated several bushels of seed in the last few weeks, and it has 
 been found in these tests that a lot of the seed saved last fall, 
 and thought to be sound, was partially injured by frost and 
 should not be used for seed under any circumstances. 
 
 Heavy seed produces large, healthy, uniform and well-devel- 
 oped plants. The seed separated. in the Connecticut valley this 
 season shows that the seed that will be used for sowing con- 
 sists of about one-half of light, undesirable seed. If this seed 
 is separated out and only the heavy seed used for sowing, it 
 will mean the addition of thousands of dollars to the value of 
 the coming crop. There is no grower who can afford to grow 
 weak, variable, freak plants from light seed, when a little time, 
 with no other expense, will enable him to get rid of a large 
 proportion of these undesirable plants. There are about 500,000 
 tobacco seeds in an ounce. The enormous quantities of seed 
 used to sow the seed beds is sufficient evidence that a large 
 proportion of the seed used is poor in vitality and quality. This, 
 poor seed can easily and practically be gotten rid of by using a 
 seed separator. 
 
 A large number of growers have already separated their 
 tobacco seed this sedson, and tested the vitality of the heavy 
 seed. In every case reported so far, the growers have found 
 
that the heavy seed has sprouted exceptionally well, and they 
 are surprised and thoroughly satisfied with the results of the 
 seed separation. 
 
 A thin sowing of heavy seed in the bed will no doubt yield 
 as many or more sound plants than the usual sowing of unsepa- 
 rated seed. 
 
 Separate the Seed. Grow this Year's Crop from the 
 Heaviest and Best Seed which You Have. 
 
 The Agricultural Station hopes within a few days to have a sepa- 
 rating machine either at the Station or at the farm of Mr. J. A. 
 DuBon, of Poquonock, for the use of growers w^ho do not find it 
 convenient to have their seed separated elsewhere. 
 
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 Connecticut 
 
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