COMPOSITION AND QUALITY OF PENNSYLVANIA CIGAR-LEAF TOBACCO AS RELATED TO FERTILIZER TREATMENT

The quality of the smoke produced during the normal combustion of a cigar is largely dependent on the chemical composition of the tobacco. The chemical composition of the tobacco may be influenced by many factors, among which is the fertilizer treatment employed by the grower. In order to obtain the best quality cigar-leaf tobacco, it is essential to recognize the requirements and limitations of the growing plant, to insure the presence of the materials deemed necessary, and to guard against those materials that are not only unnecessary but even harmful, so far as quality production is concerned. The individual effects of a fertilizer treatment, however, may be considerably influenced by many environmental conditions, among which is the inherent fertility of the soil itself. For example, the soil of the experimental tobacco plots at Ephrata, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania is extremely high in calcium and quite low in available potassium. This may not hold true for tobacco soils in other sections of the county; hence the optimum fertilizer treatment for the experimental plots may not hold true for other soils in the county. In former publications (1, 2) we have recognized the fact that for quality production of tobacco on our experimental plots we must equalize, if possible, the calcium and potassium content of the plants. In 1928 we planned an experiment having this objective.