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Thesis--Wisconsin. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 175-189).

M.S.

Master of Science

The flue curing process for tobacco is practiced today in nearly the same manner as when tobacco first became of commercial importance, with no definite procedure being followed. A scientific study has proved that the curing process is accurately defined within narrow limits, and that control rather than art may be more definitely relied upon. Tobacco curing differs from a true drying process in that both physical and chemical changes are involved. Since it is impractical to evaluate the chemical changes because of their complexity, the physical changes were investigated, for they govern both the chemical and physical changes which take place. Drying rate curves for each period of the curing process were obtained over a wide range of constant conditions of temperature, relative humidity, and air velocity. Correlation of these curing curves indicate the narrow limits of the conditions required for satisfactory curing, and the critical points beyond which resulted in poorly cured tobacco. From the results obtained, air conditioning improves the process by (1) reducing the time approximately one-half, thus doubling the capacity of the barns; (2) the production of uniform quality tobacco completely eliminating loss from improper curing; and (3) large reductions in labor and fuel requirements. / Master of Science

The problem considered in this study arose from the need for an emperlcal analysis of the sale value of land to determine if the increased price benefits of the governmental flue-cured tobacco program have been absorbed by higher land rents. If acreage allotments giving the right to produce tobacco under the program are capitalized into farmland values to an appreciable extent, the program objective of increasing farm incomes would be partially defeated through higher rents. The objective of this study was to determine the extent to which allotments have been capitalized into land values. Data on sale value of farms and factors expected to influence the farm sale value were secured from primary public record sources for the four-year period from 1954 to 1957 in two distinctly different flue-cured tobacco regions--Pittsylvania County, Virginia, and Wilson, Greene, and Pitt Counties, North Carolina. These data were analyzed by a multiple regression statistical technique designed to measure the value of an acre of tobacco allotment es a right to produce. The statistical coefficients indicated that an acre of tobacco allotment increased in value from $962 in 1954 to $1,673 in 1957 for Pittsylvania County and from $1,830 to $3,308 for Wilson, Greene, and Pitt Counties. The size of the values for an acre of tobacco allotment as well as the increase in values over the four-year period during which allotments were reduced under the program by 33 percent indicate that an appreciable proportion of the price·rais1ng benefits of the program have been capitalized into land values. / Master of Science

Two flue-cured tobacco varieties (Nicotiana tabacum L.) and eight harvesting and curing methods were simultaneously evaluated. Harvesting variables involved the removal of different leaf numbers on different schedules. Curing methods included single or separate barn conventional curing and a bulk curing method. Certain agronomic, physical, and chemical factors were measured. The modified harvesting methods in which the leaves were removed in less than the conventional number of harvests caused a reduction in yield and value, but not in price. Bulk curing also resulted in lower yield and value per acre as well as dollars per hundredweight than conventionally cured leaves, but there were no differences associated with curing leaves from different stalk positions in separate barns. When considering stalk positions, modification of the harvesting methods from the normal method caused a reduction in yield and an increase in filling value for the lower leaves from each harvest section. Bulk curing caused an increase in filling value in comparison to conventionally cured leaves. Leaves from the modified harvest treatments were higher in amino nitrogen and lower in nicotine concentration than normally harvested tobacco. Leaf extracts were less acidic for leaves which were harvested in one day than for normally harvested leaves. With increases in stalk position, the nitrogenous factors and water soluble acids increased, while the pH value decreased. Reducing sugars were highest for midstalk tobacco and decreased in leaves from the extremities. Plants that were harvested three times were not greatly altered in agronomic, physical, or chemical factors from those harvested conventionally, but the bulk curing of the leaves (as operated in 1970) did alter these factors. / Master of Science