Tobacco Breeding in Connecticut is a 1913 bulletin of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, written by H.K. Hayes, E.M. East, and E.G. Beinhart. As the authors state in the Introduction, “The primary object of the work has been to study some of the fundamental principles involved in tobacco breeding, with the belief that a knowledge of these principles is absolutely necessary if one is to build up a system of both practical and scientific breeding.”1

In their experiments, they inbred tobacco plants for 6-8 years (they had the plant fertilize itself), and found that each succeeding generation did not suffer any ill effects from the inbreeding. They also created hybrid plants, finding that some were strong and healthy and others were not. They suggest that the best way to have high-quality tobacco is to create a desired type and then continue to use it without additional hybridization: “Because of the great importance of quality it seems much more reasonable to suppose that further advance can be made by the production of fixed types which in themselves contain desirable growth factors, such as size, shape, position, uniformity, venation, and number of leaves, together with that complex of conditions which goes to make up quality, than by any other method.”2

The authors discuss Mendelian genetics, noting that not every inheritable trait is something that can be seen in a given plant – it will have genes from a parent plant that will not be apparent in the plant, but could be passed on to subsequent generations. This can have an effect on tobacco plants – if you want a crop that is guaranteed to be uniform, cross-breeding plants to create it will be a problem; there will be variations. The need to ‘fix’ a parent plant before spreading it widely is noted.

They also note that The Production of Cigar-Leaf Tobacco in Pennsylvania concluded that the climate has “a much greater effect on the character of tobacco produced than either hereditary varietal differences or soil.”3

This is an early work in the scientific literature on hybrid tobacco plants. The authors even state, “In regard to the benefits which may be obtained from hybridization and subsequent selection, our knowledge is very meagre”4 but they “hope the present paper may clear up some of the more important phases of this subject.”5 So while it does not contain all of the answers about creating excellent hybrid tobacco plants, it was a step in the process of learning how to grow them well in the future.

Tobacco Breeding in Connecticut can be read for free on the State of Connecticut’s website.

  1. Hayes, East, Beinhart, Tobacco Breeding in Connecticut, 1913, pg. 5 [↩]
  2. Hayes, East, Beinhart, Tobacco Breeding in Connecticut, 1913, pg. 8 [↩]
  3. Hayes, East, Beinhart, Tobacco Breeding in Connecticut, 1913, pgs. 11 & 12 [↩]
  4. Hayes, East, Beinhart, Tobacco Breeding in Connecticut, 1913, pg. 12 [↩]
  5. Hayes, East, Beinhart, Tobacco Breeding in Connecticut, 1913, pg. 13 [↩]