Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 April 1902 — TOBACCO UNDER CLOTH. [ARTICLE]

TOBACCO UNDER CLOTH.

Plante Sheltered by Tents Become Veritable Trees. As the plants grew, the advantages of raising under shade became easily evident. Most patent of all was the fact that the many insects which prey upon the leaves were kept out by the covering. So strongly was the tight tent of cloth built, moreover, that the roughest winds made necessary only few repairs, and the plants, usually lashed and torn by the storms, were entirely protected. Under the cloth also a uniform temperature was possible, varying from three to five degrees warmer than that of the open field. The cold nights of the spring, which deter the growth of the plants in the open, did not influence the growing under cover. Within tlie tents a continuous tropical climate existed. The hot sun that baked the soil was tempered and a considerable larger percentage of humidity was kept under the cloth than was possible In the fields. The effects of heavy rains were also modified. The leaves were not harmed by the swift drops, nor did the soil become packed and hardened Into a crust. Instead, the water beating upon the cloth sifted through and fell In a fine, warm mist upon the plants. The growth seemed to have the advantages of both the open air and the hot> house, gaining the health of one and the protected fineness of the other. With the getting of the fine t possl ble leaf the plants were not topped. In the early summer the long stalks, standing up like rows of sturdy poles and bearing thin, broad leaves of a vivid green, were touching the roof ol their house of cloth. And the fame of tented tobacco fields and plants nine feet high went out among the growers. Many of them came to see the fabulous growth, doubting the reports they had heard, having no faith In building cheesecloth houses for tobacco, prepared to ridicule ths whole project. But when they walked down between rows upon rows of veritable trees of to bacco, says Arthur Goodrich In ths World’s Work, which shook out greal green leaves three or four feet above their beads, and when they had exam Ined these luxuriant, symmetrical, shining leaves, twenty to twenty-four Inches In length, and noted the thin fineness of them, their perfect size and shape for wrappers—giving two full cuts without waste— and their remarkable strength and stretch, many of the visit ors began to examine tlie structure, tc inquire into costs and to make plans for their own lileds of tobacco. Tlie Secretary of Agriculture, Mr Wilson, came up from Washington and went over the ground, congratulating the growers and making suggestions.