SECTION VI. (continued 2)

So little is this crop cultivated in the States north of Maryland, that scarcely any notice has been taken of it in the agricultural or other public journals.

In Connecticut, in some few towns of Hartford county, considerable attention has been directed to it for a number of years past. A ton and a-half the acre is said to be no uncommon yield. The tobacco is planted very thick, two feet and a half each way. The seed came originally from Virginia. It is cured in houses, without having been yellowed in the sun, and without the use of fire. It is said that the best Havana cigars (as they are termed) are often manufactured from mixed Cuba and American tobacco, and sold under that name in Connecticut.

In the Connecticut Valley is produced about 500 tons of tobacco annually, the average quantity, 1,500 lbs. per acre, value from seven to ten cents per pound.

Culture.—Seed bed made rich and sown as cabbage early in April as possible.

Land well ploughed and manured and harrowed as for corn, laid out in rows three feet apart, and slight hills in the row about two and a-half feet apart; begin to plant about 10th of June, the ground to be kept clean with hoe and cultivator, and examine the plants and keep clear of worms.

"When in blossom and before seed is formed, the plants must be topped about thirty-two inches from the ground, having from sixteen to twenty leaves on each stalk, after this the suckers are broken off, and the plants kept clean till cut. When ripe the leaves are spotted, thick, and will crack when pressed between the fingers and thumb. It is cut at any time of the day, after the dew is off, left in the row till wilted, then turned, and if there is a hot sun, it is often turned to prevent burning; after wilting it is put into small heaps of six or eight plants, then carried to the tobacco house for hanging, usually on poles twelve feet long; hung with twine about forty plants to a pole, twenty on each side, crossing the pole with a hitch knot to the stump end of the plants; when perfectly cured, which is known by the stems of the leaves being completely dry, it is then taken in a damp time, when the leaves will not crumble, from the poles and placed in large piles, by letting the tops of the plants lap each other, leaving the butts out; it remains in these heaps from three to ten days before it is stripped, depending on the state of weather, but it must not be allowed to heat. When stripped it is made into small hands, the small and broken leaves to be kept by themselves; it is then packed in boxes of about 400 lbs. and marked "Seed Leaf Tobacco."

One acre of tobacco will require as much labor as two of corn that produce 60 bags to the acre, and requires about the same quantity of manure. If the tobacco can be cured without fire heat the quality will be improved, and if dried in the open air, should have shades of boards to keep off rain and excess of sun. The chief market for Connecticut tobacco is Bremen.

In a number of the "Charleston Southern Planter," a remedy is described for preventing the destruction of plants by the fly. The writer says: "I had a bushel or two of dry ashes put into a large tub, and added train oil enough (say one gallon of oil to the bushel of ashes) to damp and flavor the ashes completely: this was well stirred and mixed with the hand, and sown broadcast over certain patches, and proved thoroughly effectual for several years, while parts left without the remedy were destroyed."

The best ground for raising the plant, according to Capt. Carver ("Treatise on Culture of Tobacco," &c.), is a warm rich soil, not subject to be overrun with weeds. The soil in which it grows in Virginia is inclining to sandy, consequently warm and light; the nearer, therefore, the nature of the land approaches to that, the greater probability there is of its flourishing. The situation most preferable for a plantation is the southern declivity of a hill, or a spot sheltered from the blighting north winds. But at the same time the plants must enjoy a free current of air; for if that be obstructed they will not prosper.

The different sorts of seed not being distinguishable from each other, nor the goodness to be ascertained by its appearance, great caution should be used in obtaining the seed through some responsible mercantile house, or individual of character.

Each capsule contains about a thousand seeds, and the whole produce of a single plant has been estimated at 350,000. The seeds are usually ripe in the month of September, and when perfectly dry may be rubbed out and preserved in bags till the following season.

There is a large quantity of tobacco raised in the southern part of Indiana annually, equal in quality to the tobacco raised in Kentucky. In some counties the article is extensively cultivated, and generally pays the producer a handsome profit on the labor bestowed on it. The cultivation of it is becoming more extensive every year. Nearly all this crop is taken to Louisville for sale, very little being shipped south on account of the producer.

Heretofore, owing to the heaviness of tobacco and bad roads, the producer has encountered great difficulties in getting his crop to market. The hauling of a few hogsheads fifty or sixty miles, or even forty, is no light job, even over good roads. Hence, tobacco has not been as extensively cultivated as it would have been under different circumstances. But, with the facilities afforded by the railroads in carrying their crops to market, I doubt not the farmers of the interior will more generally engage in the cultivation of tobacco, and those who have been in the habit of raising small crops will extend their operations.

In Maryland the seed is sown in beds of fine mould, and the plants arising therefrom are transplanted in the beginning of May. They are set at the distance of three or four feet apart, and are hilled, and kept continually free from weeds. When as many leaves have shot out as the soil will nourish to advantage, the top of the plant is broken off, which of course prevents its growing higher. It is carefully kept clear from worms, and the suckers which put out between the leaves are taken off at proper times, till the plant arrives at perfection, which is in August. When the leaves turn of a brownish color, and begin to be spotted, the plants are cut down and hung up to dry, after having sweated in heaps one night. When the leaves can be handled without crumbling, which is always in moist weather, they are stripped from the stalks, tied up in bundles, and packed for exportation in hogsheads. No suckers nor ground leaves are allowed to be merchantable. An industrious person may manage 6,000 plants of tobacco, which will yield 1,000 lbs. of dried leaves, and also four acres of Indian corn.

Miller, an American author, thus describes the mode of culture:—

When a regular plantation of tobacco is intended, the beds being prepared and well turned up with the hoe, the seed, on account of its smallness and to prevent the ravages of ants, is mixed with ashes and sown upon them, a little before the rainy season. The beds are raked, or trampled with the foot, to make the seed take the sooner. The plants appear in two or three weeks. As soon as they have acquired four leaves, the strongest are carefully drawn up and planted in the field by a line, at a distance of about three feet from each other. If no rain fall, they should be watered two or three times. Every morning and evening the plants must he looked over in order to destroy a worm which sometimes invades the bud. When they are about four or five inches high, they are to be cleaned from weeds and moulded up. As soon as they have eight or nine leaves, and are ready to put forth a stalk, the top is nipped off in order to make the leaves longer and thicker. After this the buds which sprout at the joints of the leaves are also plucked off, and not a day is suffered to pass without examining the leaves to destroy the large caterpillar, which is often most destructive to them. When they are fit for cutting, which is known by the brittleness of the leaves, they are cut off with a knife close to the ground, and, after lying some time, are carried to the drying-shed or house, where the plants are hung up by pairs upon lines, leaving a space between, that they may not touch one another. When perfectly dry, the leaves are stripped from the stalks and made into small bundles, tied with one of the leaves. These bundles are laid in heaps and covered with blankets; care is taken not to overheat them, for which reason the heaps are laid open to the air from time to time, and spread abroad. This operation is repeated till no more heat is perceived in the heaps, and the tobacco is then ready for packing and shipping.

I have been favored by Mr. J. M. Hernandez, a Cuba planter, with some valuable instructions for the cultivation of Cuba tobacco, which I subjoin. These remarks apply principally to America, but most of the advice and information will be found generally applicable to other localities:—

The first thing to be considered in this, as in every other culture, is the soil, which for this kind of tobacco (N. repanda) ought to be a rich, sandy, loam, neither too high nor too low—that is, ground capable of retaining moisture, the more level the better, and, if possible, well protected by margins. The next should be the selection of a spot of ground to make the necessary beds. It would be preferable to make those on land newly cleared, or, at all events, when the land has not been seeded with grass; for grass seeds springing up together with the tobacco would injure it materially, as the grass cannot be removed without disturbing the tobacco plants. In preparing the ground for the nurseries, break it up properly, grub up all the small stumps, dig out the roots, and carefully remove them with the hand. This being done, make the beds from three to four inches high, of a reasonable length, and from three to three and a-half feet broad, so as to enable the hand, at arm's length, to weed out the tender young plants with the fingers from both sides of the bed, and keep them perfectly clean.

The months of December and January are the most proper for sowing the seed in Florida. Some persons speak of planting it as early as the month of November, I am, however, of opinion, that about the latter part of December is the best time to sow tobacco seed; any sooner would expose the plants to suffer from the inclemency of the most severe part of the winter season. Before the seed is sown take some dry trash and burn it off upon the nursery beds, to destroy insects and grass seeds; then take one ounce of tobacco seed and mix it with about a quart of dry ashes, so as to separate the seed as much; as possible, and sow it broadcast. After the seed has been thus sown, the surface of the bed ought to be raked over slightly, and trodden upon by the foot, carrying the weight of the body with it, that the ground may at once adhere closely to the seed, and then water it. Should the nursery-beds apparently become dry from blighting winds or other causes, watering will be absolutely necessary, for the ground ought to be kept in a moist state from the time the seed is planted until the young plants are large enough to be set out.

The nurseries being made, proceed to prepare the land where the tobacco is to be set out. If the land is newly cleared—and new land is probably more favorable to the production of this plant than it is to that of any other, both as respects quality and quantity—remove as many of the stumps and roots as possible, and dig up the ground in such a manner as to render the surface perfectly loose; then level the ground, and in this state leave it until the nursery plants have acquired about one-half the growth necessary to admit of their being set out; then break up the ground a second time in the same manner as at first, as in this way all the small fibres of roots and their rooted parts will be more or less separated, and thus obviate much of that degree of sponginess so common to new land, and which is in a great measure the cause of new land seldom producing well the first year, as the soil does not lay close enough to the roots of the plants growing in it, so that a shower of rain produces no other effect than that of removing the earth still more from them.

The ground having been prepared and properly levelled off, and the plants, sufficiently grown to be taken up—say of the size of good cabbage plants—take advantage of the first wet or cloudy weather to commence setting them out. This should be done with great care, and the plants put single at equal distances, that is, about three feet north and south, and two and a-half, or two and three-fourths feet east and west. They are placed thus close to each other to prevent the leaves growing too large. The direction of the rows, however, should alter according to the situation of the land; where it has any inclination, the widest space should run across it, as the bed will have to be made so as to prevent the soil from being washed from the roots by rain when bedded; but where the land is rather level, the three feet rows should be north and south, so as to give to the plants a more full effect on them by passing across the beds, than by crossing them in an oblique direction. To set the plants out regularly, take a task line of 105 feet in length, with a pointed stick three feet long attached to each end of it, then insert a small piece of rag or something else through the line at the distance of two feet and three-fourths from each other; place it north and south (or as the land may require), at full length, and then set a plant at every division, carefully keeping the bud of the plant above the surface of the ground. Then remove the line three feet from the first row, and so on, until the planting is completed. Care ought to be taken to prevent the stretching of the line from misplacing the plants. In this way the plants can be easily set out, and a proper direction given to them both ways. In taking the plants up from the nursery, the ground should be first loosened with a flat piece of wood or iron, about an inch broad; then carefully holding the leaves close towards each other between the fingers, draw them up, and place them in a basket or some other convenient thing to receive them for planting. After taking up those that can be planted during the day, water the nursery that the earth may again adhere to the remaining ones. The evening is the best time for setting out the plants, but where a large field has to be cultivated it will be well to plant both morning and evening. The plants set out in the morning, unless in rainy or cloudy weather, should be covered immediately, and the same should be done with those planted the evening previous, should the day open with a clear sunshine,—the palmetto leaf answers the purpose very well. There should be water convenient to the plants, so as to have them watered morning and evening, but more particularly in the evening, until they have taken root. They should also be closely examined when watered, so as to replace such plants as happen to die, that the ground may be properly occupied, and that all the plants may open as nearly together as possible.

From the time the plants are set out, the earth around them should be occasionally stirred, both with the hand and hoe. At first hoe flat, but as soon as the leaves assume a growing disposition, begin gradually to draw a slight heel towards the plant. The plants must be closely examined, even while in the nursery, to destroy the numerous worms that feed upon them—some, by cutting the stalk and gnawing the leaves when first set out; these resemble the grub-worm, and are to be found near the injured plant, under ground; others, which come from the eggs deposited on the plant by the butterfly, and feed on the leaf, grow to a very large size, and look very ugly, and are commonly called the tobacco-worm. There is also a small worm which attacks the bud of the plant, and which is sure destruction to its further growth; and some again, though less destructive, are to be seen within the two coats of the leaf, feeding as it were on its juices alone. The worming should be strictly attended to every morning and evening, until the plants are pretty well grown, when every other day will be sufficient. The most proper persons for worming are either boys or girls from ten to fourteen years of age. They should be made to come to the tobacco ground early in the morning, and be led by inducements, such as giving a trifling reward to those who will bring the most worms, to clear it thoroughly. Grown persons would find it rather too tedious to stoop to examine the under part of every leaf, and seek the worm under ground: nor would they be so much alive to the value of a spoonful of sugar, or other light reward. Beside, where the former would make the search a matter of profit and pleasure, it would to the latter prove only a tedious and irksome occupation. Here I will observe, that it is for similar reasons that the culture of the Cuba tobacco plant more properly belongs to a white population, for there are few plants requiring more attention and tender treatment than it does. Indeed it will present a sorry appearance, unless the eye of its legitimate proprietor is constantly watching over it.

When the plants have acquired from twelve to fourteen good leaves, and are about knee high, it may be well to begin to top them, by nipping off the bud with the aid of the finger and thumb nail (washing the hands after this in water is necessary, as the acid juices of the plants, otherwise, soon produce a soreness on the fingers), taking care not to destroy the small leaves immediately near the bud: for if the land is good and the season favorable, those very small top leaves will in a short time be nearly as large, and ripen quite as soon as the lower ones, whereby two or more leaves may be saved; thus obtaining from 16 to 18 leaves, in the place of 12 or 14, which is the general average. As the topping of the tobacco plant is all essential in order to promote the growth, and to equalise the ripening of the leaves, I would observe that this operation should at all events commence the instant that the bud of the plant shows a disposition to go to seed, and be immediately followed by removing the suckers, which it will now put out at every leaf. Indeed, the suckers should be removed from the plant as often as they appear. The tobacco plant ought never to be cut before it comes to full maturity, which is known by the leaves becoming mottled, coarse, and of a thick texture, and gummy to the touch, at which time the end of the leaf, by being doubled, will break short, which it will not do to the same extent when green. It ought not to be out in wet weather, when the leaves lose their natural gummy substance, so necessary to be preserved. About this period, the cultivator is apt to be rendered anxious by the fear of allowing the plants to remain in the field longer than necessary; until experience removes those apprehensions, he should be on his guard, however, not to destroy the quality of his tobacco, by cutting it too soon. When the cutting is to commence, there should be procured a quantity of forked stakes, set upright, with a pole or rider setting on each fork ready to support the tobacco, and to keep it from the ground. The plant is then cut obliquely, even with the surface of the ground, and the person thus employed should strike the lower end of the stalk, two or three times with the blunt side of his knife, so as to cause as much of the sand or soil to fall from it as possible, then tying two stalks together, they are gently placed across the riders or poles prepared to receive them. In this state they are allowed to remain in the sun or open air until the leaves have somewhat withered, whereby they will not be liable to the injury which they would otherwise receive, if they came suddenly in contact with other bodies when fresh cut. Then place as many plants on each pole or rider as may be conveniently carried, and take them in the drying house, where the tobacco is strung off upon the frames prepared for it, leaving a small space between the two plants, that air may circulate freely among them, and promote their drying. As the drying advances, the stalks are brought closer to each other, so as to make room for those which yet remain to be housed.

In drying the tobacco, all damp air should be excluded, nor ought the drying of it to be precipitated by the admission of high drying winds. The process is to be promoted in the most moderate manner, except in the rainy season, when the sooner the drying is effected the better; for it is a plant easily affected by the changes of the weather, after the drying commences. It is then liable to mildew in damp weather, which is when the leaf changes from its original color to a pale yellow cast, and from this, by parts, to an even brown. When the middle stem is perfectly dry, it can be taken down, and the leaves stripped from the stalk and put in bulk to sweat, that is, to make tobacco of them; for before this process, when a concentration of its better qualities takes place, the leaves are always liable to be affected by the weather, and cannot well be considered as being anything else than common dry leaves, partaking of the nature of tobacco, but not actually tobacco. The leaves are to be stripped from the stalks in damp or cloudy weather, when they are more easily handled, and the separation of the different qualities rendered also more easy. The good leaves are at this time kept by themselves as wrappers, or caps, and the most defective ones for fillings, or tripa. When the tobacco is put in bulk, the stem of the leaves should all be kept in one direction, to facilitate the tying of them in hanks: afterwards make the bulk two of three feet high, and of a proportionate circumference. To guard against the leaves becoming over-heated, and to equalise the fermentation or sweating, after the first twenty-four hours, place the outside leaves in the centre, and those of the centre to the outside of the bulk. By doing this once or twice, and taking care to cover the bulk either with sheets or blankets, so as to exclude all air from it, and leaving it in this state for about forty days, it acquires an odor strong enough to produce sneezing, and the other qualities of cured tobacco. The process of curing may then be considered as completed. Then take some of the most injured leaves, but of the best quality, and in proportion to the quantity of tobacco made, and place them in clean water, there let them remain until they rot, which they will do in about eight days; then break open your bulks, spread the tobacco with their stems in one direction, and damp them with this water in a gentle manner, that it may not soak through the leaf, for in this case the leaf would rot. Sponge is used in Cuba for this operation. Then tie them in hanks of from, twenty-five to thirty leaves; this being done, spread the hanks in the tobacco house for about twelve hours, to air them, that the dampness may be removed, and afterwards pack them in casks or barrels, and head them tight, until you wish to manufacture them.

The object of damping the tobacco with this water, is to give it elasticity, to promote its burning free, to increase its fragrance; to give it an aromatic smell, and to keep it always soft. This is the great secret of curing tobacco for cigars properly, and for which we are indebted to the people of Cuba, who certainly understand the mode of curing this kind of tobacco better than other people. It is to them a source of great wealth, and may be made equally so to others. We have here three cuttings from the original plants; the last cutting will be of rather a weak quality, but which, nevertheless, will be agreeable to those who confine their smoking to weak tobacco.

In ratooning the plant, only one sprout ought to be allowed to grow, and this from those most deeply rooted; all other sprouts ought to be destroyed.

The houses necessary for the curing of tobacco ought to be roomy, with a passage way running through the centre, from one extremity of the building to the other, and pierced on both sides with a sufficient number of doors and windows to make them perfectly airy.

In addition to what I have said respecting the mode of cultivating and treating the tobacco plant, I have further to state, that when once the plant is allowed to be checked in its growth, it never again recovers it. That in promoting the drying of the leaf, fire should not be resorted to, because the smoke would impart to it a flavor that would injure that of the tobacco itself.

In order to obtain vigorous plants, the seed ought to be procured from the original stalk, and not from the ratoons, by allowing some of them to go to seed for that express purpose. In Cuba, the seed is most generally saved from the ratoon plants, but we should consider that that climate and soil are probably more favorable to the production of the plant than America, and consequently we ought to confide in the best seed, which is had from the original stalk.

All plants have their peculiar empire: nevertheless, we should not be deterred from planting Cuba tobacco here; for even if we should be compelled to import the seed every third year, which would be as often as necessary, it would still prove a profitable culture. Taking 600 lbs., which is the average product per acre, it would yield, if well cured, at 50 cents, per lb., 300 dollars in the leaf.

The following exhibits the profit to be derived from it when manufactured into cigars:—

Dls.Cts.Dls.Cts.

Six hundred pounds, allowing eight pounds to the 1.000, would produce 75,000 cigars, which at ten dollars per thousand750.00

Cost of the leaf300.00

Worth of manufacture, at two dollars fifty cents per thousand187.50487.50

Difference in favor of manufacturer262.50

This amount being the profits of the manufacturer alone, the profit to him who could combine both pursuits would be more than doubled.

As to the quantity of land which can be cultivated to the hand, there is some difference in the practice of planters; however, I think that I am within the usual calculation in saying, that an acre and a half would not exceed the quantity that an able hand can easily cultivate and manage properly.

"With reference to the cultivation of Spanish tobacco from the seed, the following remarks are also made by a gentleman residing in Maryland:—

My experience for some years in the cultivation and manufacture of Spanish tobacco into cigars, convinces me that the first-rate variety of Spanish tobacco—that is, the most odorous and fine—will bear reproduction in our climate twice, without much deterioration; by that time it becomes acidulated and worthless as Spanish tobacco. For seven years I have imported annually first seed from Cuba, but have occasionally made experiments with reproduced seed, and I have arrived at the conclusion above stated. I have obtained, annually, a cigar maker from Baltimore, who has made for me on my farm, and from Spanish tobacco. These produced about the average of 70,000 cigars, per year; they have been sold in Baltimore and Philadelphia for five dollars the half box, that is ten dollars the thousand. The tobacco has been uniformly admired, but in former years they have been very badly made; for the last two years, (writing in 1843,) my crops were destroyed by the unfavorable weather. This growth and manufacture do not interfere with my cultivation of other crops; in fact they are wholly unconnected with the other operations of the farmer." He mentions having obtained a premium from an agricultural society, for having produced on one and a half acres, growth and manufacture included, of Spanish tobacco 504 dollars net profit.

The following letter from Mr. Clarke, to the Hon. H. L. Ellsworth, Washington, speaks favorably of a new variety of tobacco:—

Willow Grove, Orange County, Virginia,

Feb. 13, 1844.

Dear Sir,—Agreeably to my promise I enclose you the Californian tobacco seed. It grew from the small parcel given to me by Mr. Wm. Smith, in your office in March last. On getting home, although late, I prepared a bed, and sowed the small parcel, the first week in April, and not having seed enough to finish the bed, sowed the balance of the bed in Oronoko tobacco seed, and to my astonishment the Californian plants were soon ready to set out, as soon as the other kinds of tobacco sown in the month of January; and the Oronoko seed, that was sown with the Californian, did not arrive to sufficient size until it was too late to set out. The Californian tobacco, if it continues to ripen and grow for the time to come, as it did for me on the first trial, must come into general use—first, because the plants are much earlier in the spring (say ten days at least), than any kind we have; secondly, when transplanted, the growth is remarkably quick, matures and ripens at least from ten to fifteen days earlier than any kind of tobacco we have in use amongst us. It is a large broad, silky leaf, of fine texture, and of a beautiful color, and some plants grow as large as seven feet across, from point to point; upon the whole, I consider it a valuable acquisition to the planting community.

Tobacco is one of the chief staples of Cuba. There are many qualities, but it is usually classed into two kinds. That which is raised on the western end of the island and is unequalled for smoking, is called "Vuelta abajo." That which is raised east of Havana, is called "Vuelta arriba," and is far inferior to the former.

The best Havana tobacco farms are confined to a very narrow area on the south west part of Cuba. This district, twenty-seven leagues long and only seven broad, is bounded on the north by mountains, on the south and west by the ocean, whilst eastward, though there is no natural limit, the tobacco sensibly degenerates in quality. A light sandy soil and rather low situation suit the best.

The "Vuelta abajo" is usually divided into five classes.

Calidad or Libra.

Ynjuriado Principal or Firsts.

Segundas or Seconds.

Terceiras or Thirds.

Cuartas or Fourths.

Calidad is the best tobacco, selected for its good color, flavor, elasticity and entireness of the leaves. The bales contain sixty hands of four gabillas, or fingers of twenty-five leaves each, and are marked L.60. Ynjuriado Principal has less flavor, and is usually of a lighter color. The leaves should be whole and somewhat elastic. The bales contain eighty hands of four gabillas, or thirty leaves each, and are marked B. 80. Segundas is the most inferior class of wrapper. There are many good leaves in it, but the hands are usually made up of those which are stained, have a bad color, or have been slightly touched by the worm. The bales contain eighty hands of four gabillas of thirty-six to forty leaves each, and are marked Y. 2a. 80.

Terceiras is the best tilling, and much wrapper can usually be selected from it when new. The bales contain eighty hands of four gabillas of more than forty leaves each, and are marked 3a. 80.

Cuartas is the most inferior class, fit only for filling. The bales contain eighty hands of four gabillas of no determined number of leaves, and are marked 4a. 80.

The Vuelta arriba tobacco is prepared in a similar manner, but neither its color or flavor is good, and it does not burn well.

The crop is gathered in the spring, and usually begins to appear at market in July. Good tobacco should be aromatic, of a rich brown color, without stains, and the leaf thin and elastic. It should burn well and the taste should be neither bitter nor biting. The best is grown on the margins of rivers which are periodically overflowed, and is called "De rio." It is distinguished from other tobacco by a fine sand, which is found in the creases of the leaves.

The tobacco plantations in Cuba increased in number from 5,534 in 1827, to 9,102 in 1846. The production of tobacco has nearly doubled in the province, of which St. Jago is the port, in the last ten years.

The following figures show the exports from the Havana:—

Leaf tobacco.Cigars.

18401,031,136lbs.147,818thousand.

18411,460,302"161,928"

18421,053,161"135,127"

18432,125,805"153,227"

18441,197,136"147,825"

18451,621,889"120,352"

18464,066,262"158,841"

18471,936,829"1,982,267"

18481,350,815"150,729"

18491,158,265"111,572"

The class of tobacco shipped at the port of Havana, is not the same as that gathered in the districts from which the manufacturers of cigars there receive their supplies—it would cost too dear. However, it is not a rare occurrence to find among a number of bales a few of a quality about equal to that employed there, and this happens in years when the crop has been very abundant, as in 1846 and 1848. The various classes are paid in proportion to the capa, or outside leaves, which are found in an assortment; the three first classes are employed as covers, and often, if the tobacco is new, they may be found in the fourth and even in the fifth. In parcels well assorted, one-fourth is composed of capa—say, first, second, and third, and the rest is composed of tripa, or interior of the cigar. In the first-named, there generally comes more of the capa than is necessary to use; the remaining bales, which contain the inferior class, are fit only for fillings.

The following is an analysis of the ashes of Havana tobacco:—

Salts of potash24.30

Salts of lime and magnesia67.40

Silica8.30

100.

Hayti exported in 18361,222,716 lbs.

Porto Rico, in 183943,203 cwt.

The French have been so successful in cultivating tobacco, in their possessions in Northern Africa, that they hope soon to be independent of the foreign grown article. The mode of preparing it, however, is not very well understood by the colonists. In 1851, the number of planters in Algeria was only 137, whereas in 1852, it was 1,073. The number of hectares under culture with the tobacco plant was 446 in 1851, and 1,095 in 1852. The total of the present year's crop is estimated at 1,780,000 kilogrammes, of which 700,000 kilogrammes have been grown by the natives, and the rest by Europeans.

In the province of Algiers alone, the quantity of tobacco sold will amount to 550,000 kilogrammes, which is nearly three times as much as in 1851, and an equal progression has taken place in the provinces of Oran, and Constantina.

The cultivation of tobacco in Algeria has proved most successful; in 1851, only 264,912 kilogrammes were produced; in 1852, the quantity had risen to 735,199 kilogrammes. There are two crops in the year, the first being the best, but even this is capable of almost indefinite augmentation.

CULTURE OF TOBACCO IN THE EAST.

Having touched upon the practice of culture in the western world, we will now bend our steps towards the east, and it may be curious to notice the method pursued in cultivating and curing the celebrated Shiraz tobacco of Persia (Nicotiana Persica), which is so much esteemed for the delicacy of its flavor, and its aromatic quality. It is thus described by an intelligent traveller. The culture of the plant, it will be seen, is nearly the same; it is only the preparation of the tobacco that forms the difference:—

In December the seed is sown in a dark soil, which, has been slightly manured (red clayey soils will not do). To protect the seed, and to keep it warm, the ground is covered with light, thorny bushes, which are removed when the plants are three or four inches high; and during this period, the plants are watered every four or five days, only however in the event of sufficient rain to keep the soil well moistened not falling. The ground must be kept wet until the plants are six to eight inches high, when they are transplanted into a well moistened soil, which has been made into trenches for them; the plants being put on the top of the ridges ten or twelve inches apart, while the trenched plots are made, so as to retain the water given. The day they are transplanted, water must be given to them, and also every five or six days subsequently, unless rain enough falls to render this unnecessary. When the plants have become from thirty to forty inches high, the leaves will be from three to fifteen inches long. At this period, or when the flowers are forming, all the flower capsules are pinched or twisted off. After this operation and watering being continued, the leaves increase in size and thickness until the month of August or September, when each plant is cut off close to the root, and again stuck firmly into the ground. At this season of the year, heavy dews fall during the night; when exposed to these the color of the leaves change from green to the desired yellow. During this stage, of course no water is given to the soil. When the leaves are sufficiently yellow, the plants are taken from the earth early in the morning, and while they are yet wet from the dew, are heaped on each other in a high shed, the walls of which are made with light thorny bushes, where they are freely exposed to the wind. While there, and generally in four or five days, those leaves which are still green become of the desired pale yellow color. The stalks and centre stem of each leaf are now removed, and thrown away, the leaves are heaped together in the drying house for three or four days more, when they are in a fit state for packing. For this operation the leaves are carefully spread on each other and formed into sorts of cakes, the circumference from four to five feet, and three to four inches thick, great care being taken not to break or injure the leaves.

Bags made of strong cloth, but thin and very open at the sides, are filled with these cakes, and pressed very strongly down on each other; the leaves would be broken if this were not attended to. When the bags are filled, they are placed separately in a drying house, and turned daily. If the leaves were so dry that there would be a risk of their breaking during the operation of packing, a very slight sprinkling of water is given them to enable them to withstand it without injury. The leaf is valued for being thick, tough, and of a uniform light yellow color, and of an agreeable aromatic smell.

In India, the Surat, Bilsah, and Sandoway (Arracan) varieties of tobacco are the most celebrated. The two first are found to be good for cultivation in the district about Calcutta, but the Cabool is still more to be preferred. Tobacco requires in the East, for its growth, a soil as fertile and as well manured as for the production of the poppy or opium. It is, therefore, often planted in the spaces enriched by animal and vegetable exuviæ, among the huts of the natives. I have tried seed in different soils, says Capt. C. Cowles,—namely a light garden mould with a large portion of old house rubbish, dug to a good depth, which had a top dressing of the sweepings of the farm-yard and cow-houses; a rather heavy loam, highly manured with burnt and decayed vegetables, and old cow dung; the third was a patch of ground, which was originally an unwholesome swamp, from being eighteen inches to two feet, lower than the surrounding land; the soil appeared to be a hard sterile clay, and covered with long coarse grass and rushes. As there was a tank near it, I cut away one side of it, and threw the soil over the ground, bringing it rather above the level. Such was its appearance, (a hard compost marly clay,) that I expected no other good from it than that of raising the land so as to throw the water off; contrary, however, to my expectations, it produced a much finer crop of tobacco than either of the other soils, and with somewhat less manure. The agricultural process is limited to some practical laws founded on experience, and these are subject to two principal agents; viz., the soil and climate. With respect to the former, it is the practice amongst the growers in tobacco countries, such as Cuba, the States of Virginia, North and South Carolina, and the Philippine Islands, to select a high and dry piece of land, of a siliceous nature, and combined with iron, if possible; and with respect to the latter, there are seasons of the year too well known to the planters to need any explanation. The only difference (if there is any) depends on the geographical situation of the place, with respect to its temperature, or in the backwardness or advancement of seasons, and even on the duration of the same—in which circumstances the planter takes advantage of the one for the other.

The influence of a burning climate may be modified by choosing the coolest month of the year, whereas the soil cannot be altered without incurring great expense. I have seen tobacco lose its natural quality and degenerate by transplanting from one soil to another, although of the same temperature, and vice versa.

Mr. Piddington has analysed several Indian soils, distinguished for the production of superior tobacco. These are the table soils from Arracan, (Sandoway,) a soil from Singour, in Burdwan, near Chandernagore, the tobacco of which, though of the same species as that of the surrounding country, sells at the price of the Arracan sort; and the soil of the best Bengal tobacco, which is grown at, and about Hingalee, in the Kishnagur district.

The best tobacco soils of Cuba and Manila, are for the most part red soils. Now, the red and reddish soils contain most of their iron in the state of peroxide, or the reddish brown oxide of iron; while the lighter grey soils contain it only in the state of protoxide, or the black oxide of iron. Mr. Piddington believes the quality of the tobacco to depend mainly on the state and quantity of the iron of the soil, while it is indifferent about the lime, which is so essential to cotton. None of the tobacco soils contain any lime. Their analysis show them to contain:—

Arracan soil.Singour soil.Hingalee soil.

Oxide or iron. (peroxide)15.6510.606.00

Water and saline matter1.10751.50

Vegetable matter and fibre3.751.1075

Silex76.9080.6587.25

Alumina2.004.501.50

99.4097.6097.00

Water and loss602.403.00

100100100

From which it will be seen that the best tobacco soil hitherto found in India contains about sixteen per cent., or nearly one-sixth, of iron, which is mostly in a state of peroxide; and that the inferior sort of tobacco grows in a soil containing only six per cent., or one-sixteenth of iron, which is, moreover, mostly in the state of protoxide, or black oxide. Mr. Piddington thought it worth examining what the quantity of iron in the different sorts of tobacco would be, and found that while the ashes of one ounce, or 480 grains of Havana and Sandoway cheroots gave exactly 1.94 grains, or 0.40 per cent., of peroxide of iron the ashes of the same quantity of the Hingalee, or best Bengal tobacco, only gave 1.50 grains, or 0.32 per cent.; and it appears to exist in the first two in a state of peroxide, and in the last as a protoxide of iron; rendering it highly probable that the flavor of the tobacco to the smoker depends on the state and quantity of the iron it contains! Green copperas water, which is a solution of sulphate of iron, is often used by the American and English tobacconists and planters, to colour and flavor their tobacco; and this would be decomposed by the potass of the tobacco, and sulphate of potass and carbonate of iron is formed. Carbonate of iron is of an ochre-yellow color. Mr. Piddington says he took care to ascertain that this process had not been performed with the tobacco used for this experiment; and adds that Bengal cheroot makers do not know of this method. Mr. Laidley, of Gonitea, dissents from the idea suggested by Mr. Piddington that ferruginous matter in the soil is essential to the successful growth of tobacco. He observes that if we attend only to the iron contained, why every plant will be found to require a ferruginous soil; but tobacco contains a notable quantity of nitrate of potass and muriate of ammonia (the latter a most rare ingredient in plants), and these two salts are infinitely more likely to affect the flavor of the leaf than a small portion of oxide of iron, an inert body. Now as neither of these can be supplied by the atmosphere, we must search for them in the soil, and accordingly he imagined that a compost similar to the saltpetre beds which Napoleon employed so extensively in France, would be a good manure for tobacco lands; namely, calcareous matter, such as old mortar, dung, and the ashes of weeds or wood. He was aware that good tobacco might be grown in Beerbhoom, having raised some himself several years ago from American seed. The plants grew most vigorously, and he further observed, in confirmation of his opinion about the proper manure, that in other districts in which he had resided the natives always grew the tobacco (each for his own use) upon the heap of rubbish at his door, consisting of ashes, cow-dung, and offal of all kinds. While the soil of the Gangetic diluvium almost always contains carbonate of lime, the Beerbhoom soil does not, as far at least as Mr. Laidley had examined it.

The following is the mode of culture pursued about the city of Coimbetore. Between the middle of August and the same time in September, a plot of ground is hoed and embanked into small squares; in these the seed is sown, and covered by hand three times at intervals of ten days. To secure a succession of seedlings water is then given, and the sun's rays moderated by a covering of bushes. Watering is repeated every day for a month, and then only every fifth day. The field in which the seedlings are transplanted, is manured and ploughed at the end of August. Cattle are also folded upon the ground. Four or five ploughings are given between mid September and the middle of October, when the field is divided as above into small squares. These are watered until the soil is rendered a mud. Plants of the first sowing are then inserted at the end of September, about a cubit apart, the transplanting being done in the afternoon. At intervals of ten days the seedlings of the other two sowings are removed. A month after being transplanted the field is hoed, and after another month the leading shoot of each plant is pinched off, so as to leave them not more than a cubit high. Three times during the next month all side shoots thrown out are removed. When four months old, the crop is ready for cutting. To render the leaves sweet the field is watered, and the plants cut down close to the surface, being allowed to remain when cut until next morning. Their roots are tied to a rope and suspended round the hedges. In fine weather the leaves are dry in ten days, but if cloudy they require five more days. They are then heaped up under a roof, which is covered with bushes and pressed with stones for five days. After this the leaves are removed from the stems, tied in bunches, heaped again, and pressed for four days longer. They are now tied in bundles, partly of the small leaf and partly of the large leaf bundles, and again put in heaps for ten days—once during the time the heaps being opened and piled afresh. This completes the drying. A thousand bundles, weighing about 570 lbs., is a good produce for an acre.

In 1760, Ceylon produced a considerable quantity of tobacco, principally about Jaffna, a demand having sprung up for it in Travancore, and on the Malay coast. The cultivation spread to other districts of the island, Negombo, Chilaw, and Matura. Not long after the possession of the island by the British, a monopoly was created by an import duty of 25 per cent., ad valorem, and in 1811 the growers were compelled to deliver their tobacco into the Government stores at certain fixed rates. The culture and demand thereupon decreased. In 1853, the duty on the exports of tobacco from this island amounted to £8,386, and in 1836 to £9,514.

Ceylon now exports a considerable quantity of tobacco. The value of that exported in 1844 was nearly £18,000: it went exclusively to British colonies. The shipments since have been as follows:—

1848£17,992——

184922,300——

185020,72122,184 cwts.

185121,42222,523 cwts.

185220,53121,955 cwts.

About 96,000 piculs of cigars, of five different qualities, are exported annually from Siam. A good deal of very fine tobacco is grown in the Philippines, and the Manila cheroots are celebrated all over the globe. The quantity of raw tobacco shipped from Manila in 1847 was 92,106 arrobas (each about a quarter of a cwt.); manufactured tobacco, 12,054 arrobas; and 1,933 cases of cigars. 5,220 boxes of cigars were shipped from Manila in 1844. 73,439 millions of cigars were shipped in 1850, and 42,629 quintals of leaf tobacco.

The manufacture of cigars in Manila is a monopoly of the government, and not only is this the case, but it is a monopoly of the closest description, and any infringement of the assumed rights of the Spanish Indian government is visited by the most severe penalties. Public enterprise, however little of that commodity there now exists in the Spanish character, is thus kept down; and this is not only detrimental to the nation itself, but is also unjust towards those persons who are the purchasers of the article, enhanced in price, as is always the case, by monopoly. The cheroot, which now costs, free of duty, about one halfpenny, could be rendered for half that sum, according to well-authenticated opinions. To protect itself from illicit manufacturers, or smuggling of any kind in connection with cigars, the government is compelled to maintain an army of gendarmes, in order to adopt the most stringent means which despotic states alone tolerate. No person is, therefore, permitted to have even the tobacco leaf in its raw state on his premises, and gendarmes pay, at stated intervals, domiciliary visits to the habitations of the people, in search of any contraband materials. There are several extensive manufactories of cigars and cheroots belonging to the government in and near Manila. Mr. Mac Micking, in his recent work on the Philippines, thus describes the mode of manufacture by those employed by the government:—

In making cheroots women only are employed, the number of those so engaged in the factory at Manila being generally about 4,000. Beside these, a large body of men are employed at another place in the composition of cigarillos, or small cigars, kept together by an envelope of white paper in place of tobacco; these being the description most smoked by the Indians. The flavor of Manila cheroots is peculiar to themselves, being quite different from that made of any other sort of tobacco; the greatest characteristic probably being its slightly soporific tendency, which has caused many persons in the habit of using it to imagine that opium is employed in the preparatory treatment of the tobacco, which, however, is not the case.

The cigars are made up by the hands of women in large rooms of the factory, each of them containing from 800 to 1,000 souls. These are all seated, or squatted, Indian like, on their haunches, upon the floor, round tables, at each of which there is an old woman presiding to keep the young ones in order, about a dozen of them being the complement of a table. All of them are supplied with a certain weight of tobacco, of the first, second, or third qualities used in composing a cigar, and are obliged to account for a proportionate number of cheroots, the weight and size of which are by these means kept equal. As they use stones for beating out the leaf on the wooden tables before which they are seated, the noise produced by them while making them up is deafening, and generally sufficient to make no one desirous of protracting a visit to the place. The workers are well recompensed by the government, as very many of them earn from six to ten dollars a month for their labor; and as that amount is amply sufficient to provide them with all their comforts, and to leave a large balance for their expenses in dress, &c., they are seldom very constant laborers, and never enter the factory on Sundays, or, at least, on as great an annual number of feast days as there are Sundays in a year.

The Japanese grow a good deal of tobacco for their own consumption, which is very considerable. They consider that from Sasma as the best, then that from Nangasakay, Sinday, &c. The worst comes from the province of Tzyngaru; it is strong, of a black color, and has a disgusting taste and smell. The tobacco from Sasma is, indeed, also strong, but it has an agreeable taste and smell, and is of a bright yellow color. The tobacco from Nangasakay is very weak, in taste and smell perhaps the best, and of a bright brown color. The tobacco from Sinday is very good. The Japanese manufacture the tobacco so well, says Capt. Golownin, (Recollections of Japan,) that though I was before no friend to smoking, and even when I was at Jamaica could but seldom persuade myself to smoke an Havana cigar, yet I smoked the Japanese tobacco very frequently, and with great pleasure.

The culture of tobacco is a very profitable article for the laborers, seeing that the produce is obtained from grounds which have already given the first crop. The qualities of Java tobacco are more and more prized in the European markets, the preparation and assortment are not yet all that could be desired, but they have progressed in this branch, and the contracts made with the new adventurers assure them of a considerable benefit. But before the Java tobaccos can find an assured opening in the European markets, it is necessary that the cultivators should make use of seed from the Havana or Manila. The residencies of Rembang, Sourabaya, Samarang, Chinbou, and Tagal, present districts suited for its culture; it has been carried on with success for a good many years in the residencies of Treanger, Pakalongan, and Kedu, but only for the consumption of the interior, and of the Archipelago.

Tobacco is cultivated in Celebes, but merely in sufficient quantity for local consumption. It is exclusively grown by the Bantik population—the mode of preparation is the same as in Java; it is chopped very fine and mostly flavored with arrack. When bought in large quantities, it may be had for thirty cents the pound; but in smaller quantities it costs double that price.

Tobacco is cultivated in New South Wales with much success. Australia produces a leaf equal to Virginia, or the most fertile parts of Kentucky, but the great difficulty is to extract the superabundant "nitre." The first crop in New South Wales exceeds one ton per acre, and the second crop off the same plants, yields about half the weight of the first. In 1844 there were about 871 acres in cultivation in New South Wales with tobacco, and the produce was returned at 6,382 cwts. In New England, New South Wales, as fine a "fig" as could be wished for is manufactured under the superintendence of a thorough-bred Virginia tobacco manufacturer—but the impossibility of extracting the nitre by the heating, or any other process, renders the flavor rank and disagreeable. Perhaps cheroots, or the lower numbers of cigars, manufactured from the Australian leaf, might prove more successful.

In Sydney the time for sowing tobacco seed is September, but in Van Diemen's Land it should be a month later, as tobacco plants cannot stand the frost. The ground should be made fine, and in narrow beds three feet wide from path to path, to allow for weeding without stepping on the beds. The seed, being small, should not be raked in; but after the ground is raked fine, and perfectly clean, and well pulverised, mix the seed with wood ashes, and sow over the beds, and pat in with the spade, or tread in with the naked feet, which is preferable. The ground should be moist, but not much watered, or it moulds the plants. When about as large as moderate sized cabbage plants, they should be put out—three feet or three feet six in the rows, and five feet apart between the rows. When the plant rises to about two feet high, it will throw out suckers at each leaf, which must be carefully taken off with the finger and thumb, and all bottom and decayed leaves that touch the ground taken off. When the tobacco plant throws out flower, it must be topped off, leaving about twelve leaves in the stalk to ripen and come to maturity. When the leaves feel thick between the finger and thumb, and assume a mottled appearance, they are fit to cut.

In "Tegg's New South Wales Almanac" it is stated that the end of July is the usual time for sowing the seed. In order, however, to prevent the plants from being subsequently destroyed by frost, care must be taken not to sow the seed until the frost has ceased in any respective locality (unless raised in a frame). Tobacco requires a rich light soil, and well manured.

By the instructions for cultivating it, the plant must be three feet apart each way, which would give 4,840 plants to an acre; assuming that each plant would yield half a pound for the first crop, this would give 2,420 lbs. to an acre, which is only 180 lbs. in excess of a ton. In New South Wales several parties use the tobacco stems for sheep wash. One pound of tobacco is sufficient to wash five sheep on an average (one washing), which would give 12,100 sheep to one acre.

Assuming that only one crop was grown in New Zealand in one year, of 2,420 lbs. to an acre, at 3d. per pound, (which is about half the market price of a fair sample of tobacco in bond,) it would amount to £30 5s. per acre.

Three rows of Indian corn are planted outside the tobacco plants to shelter them from the wind. In order to save seed, a few plants are allowed to flower. The Virginian tobacco is the largest; it is known by a pink flower; the Nicotiana rustica (common green) has a yellow flower.

A planter in Northern Australia furnishes the following directions:—

The land selected for the growth of tobacco ought to be of the most fertile description, of a friable description, and upon which no water can rest within eighteen inches of the surface. Newly cleared brush lands of this nature are the most prolific; upon such, after good tillage, put the plants about four feet or more apart, in rows, and five feet six inches asunder. In interior or old ground, plant proportionately closer. Before topping or nipping off the head, all the lower leaves (that is such as may touch the ground) ought to be broken off, leaving only from five to seven for the crop, which will yield a greater weight and be of a superior quality than if double that number were left. When ripe, a dry and cloudy day should be selected to cut it, as the sun destroys its quality after cutting. It ought then to lie sufficiently long upon the ground so as to welt before carting to the sheds, hanging up each stalk next morning so as not to touch its fellow.

The drying sheds ought to be built upon an elevated or dry spot, with a hoarded flour of rough split stuff, fifteen or eighteen inches from the ground, with apertures as windows to admit or to exclude the external atmosphere. In damp weather close all the doors and windows, also every night; in contrary weather open all.

In these drying houses the stalks should remain suspended until the vegetable moisture is entirely evaporated, so that on a dry day the stems of the leaves will break like a glass pipe, and the finer parts crumble into snuff upon compression; after which, in humid weather, they will become quite pliable; then strip the leaves off the stems, make them up into hands, and pack them tightly into a close bin: when full, cover it with boards and old bagged stuff, upon which place heavy weights. In this state it undergoes the sweating process, which, in this colony, is little understood or not properly attended to, and yet, upon the skill displayed thereon, the quality of the tobacco greatly depends. I will therefore give some general directions upon this portion of the planter's office. If the tobacco happen to be too damp when put into the bin, it will attain either an injurious or a destructive degree of heat; it must therefore he watched for some days after it is packed. To an experienced operator I would say, if the heat exceed 80 degrees of temperature, immediately unpack and re-hang the whole, waiting its condition as before explained, before it is again put into the sweating bin. Should the degree of heat be below that stated, it may remain for weeks or until the heat has subsided. I have generally removed it from the sweating process in about fourteen or twenty days, sometimes considerably longer, regulating that act by the odor and color of the leaf. If, however, it appears to be attaining a very dark brown color and its heat not subsided, it should be taken out and closely pressed into large cases or casks, when it will again attain a gentle heat called the "second sweating," as is invariably the case with the hogsheads of the American leaf tobacco: this again improves its quality. Here the grower's operations terminate.

It may be necessary to remark, that how skilful and experienced soever the grower may be, it is hardly possible for him to produce a good article upon a small scale; for with a less quantity than one ton to place in the sweating bin at a time, the requisite heat to insure success will not be generated. I would further observe, that the practice of the colonists in growing what they term a "second crop" is most injurious to their interests, their lands, and the quality and character of the colonial tobacco. The American planter never attempts it. I would therefore strongly recommend its discontinuance, and also never to crop one piece of land with tobacco more than two or three years in succession. The Americans rarely take more than two crops unless the land be new; after which they sow it down with grasses, in which state it remains for two or three years until it is again planted with tobacco. I would recommend this plan to the growers.

The character of the American tobacco has been greatly advanced in the mercantile world by an ordinance regulating that source of national wealth. The planters are thereby obligated to deposit their crops in warehouses, over which sworn inspectors preside, who rigidly examine every hogshead, and if found to be of mercantile quality, grant the owner a certificate, by which instrument only he sells his produce. The purchaser is hereby safe in buying these certificates. The tobacco to which they refer is delivered to the holder on presentation to the inspector. I mention this not as applicable here at present, but it most probably may hereafter.

When the colony is suffering severely for the want of labor, it may by some be deemed inopportune in offering remarks upon this article of commerce. To such dissentients I will remark, that a great portion of the work can be performed by women and children. A moiety of our anticipated increase of population will be available for this hitherto mismanaged source of wealth. At present the quantity grown in the colony is equal to three-fourths of its consumption, and which production is of a very inferior quality to the imported. These facts tend to show that my notice of the subject is not inopportune, and particularly so when the object is to point out those errors so generally adopted by the tobacco growers here. Years of practical experience, of personal observation upon the plantations of North America, and my having been, I believe, the grower of the greatest quantity of tobacco in the colony, qualify me to afford instructions thereon; whereby, if attended to, our tobacco will become fully equal to the American, as was proved to be the case by the crops I grew here (upwards of 40 tons),[56] which were sold in Sydney by the Commissariat Department at public auction, at an advance of twenty per cent. more than the imported leaf. As the duty on tobacco is about to be reduced, the present production may fall off, unless an immediate improvement in its quality take place. Instead of being importers of tobacco, we should, if it was grown here to perfection, be exporters of it to all our sister colonies; and in its raw state, also to the European markets. At present, for home consumption, there is a greater profit to be made by its cultivation, if skilfully managed, than in any part of the world; for the duty upon imported is a positive bonus to the grower.

In 1849-50 there were fifteen manufactories of tobacco on a small scale in New South Wales, but these were reduced in 1851 to six.

Many samples of tobacco grown in the colony have been pronounced by competent judges equal to Virginian, but a very considerable prejudice exists against it. There is, however, no doubt that the dealers dispose of a great deal as American tobacco, and get a best price for it. The reduction of the import duties on foreign tobacco, recently made by the Legislative Council, will probably retard the progress of the colonial production and manufacture of this article; but with an abundance of labor there is no question that this branch of industry will be again profitably resorted to. The quantity of tobacco manufactured in New South Wales, in 1847, was 1,321 cwt.; in 1848, 714 cwt.; in 1849, 2,758 cwt.; in 1850, 3,833 cwt.; in 1851, 4,841 cwt.

A correspondent of the Adelaide Observer recommends its culture in South Australia, and supplies the following useful information:—

Without entering into botanical details, I will simply state that the plant is of a shrubby nature, about five feet high, and ought not to be planted nearer than four feet from each other, in rows five feet apart—thus allowing for each plant a space of ground four feet by five, or 20 square feet. An acre will consequently furnish sufficient room for 2,178 plants.

The tobacco plant will thrive in almost any climate, from the torrid zone to the temperature of Great Britain. It luxuriates in rich alluvial valleys, where the soil is either of a loamy or a peaty nature.

Maiden soil is not recommended. The ground should be trenched, worked as fine as possible, and well manured. Tobacco will not answer unless the subsoil is thoroughly broken. The best manure is that obtained from the bullock-yard, and bark from the tan yard; and by two or three ploughings the earth can be brought to a proper consistency, and fit for the reception of the plants.

The usual method adopted in New South Wales, is to raise the plants in a warm, sheltered bed, neither exposed to wind nor to the sun's rays; but if the weather is dry, they should be well watered night and morning. The time of sowing is the end of August or the beginning of September in the latitude of Sydney, according to the state of the weather; and they may be transplanted when they have attained their sixth leaf, which is generally about a month or five weeks after they are up.

The period is rather later in this colony, and care should be taken that the plants have gained sufficient strength in the ground after transplanting to withstand the effect of the hot winds, and, if practicable, the aspect should be either N.E. or N.W., and the rows should incline towards either of these points.

The most suitable spots in this colony for the cultivation of tobacco, are Lyndoch Valley and the districts round the town of Willunga and Morphett Vale.

The greatest care is required from the cultivator to prevent the destruction of the plant from its greatest enemy, the black grub. Daily search should be made for it, and not a plant should be left unexamined; they make their appearance about the beginning of November, when the plants have scarcely had time to take root. The soil between the rows should be kept constantly stirred with a three-pronged fork, that air and the sun's rays may be admitted, which latter are as indispensable to the growing plant as injurious to the seedling. The labor is great, and from first to last requires the constant attention of one man throughout the year, with an additional hand for about six weeks during the process of curing.

The profits even in bad seasons are considerable; but when the season and soil are favorable, they average upwards of 100 per cent. The consumption of tobacco is great in this colony, not only for personal use, but for sheep-wash; and the profits may be considerably greater for the lower leaves, which, owing to their gritty nature, cannot be manufactured, but may be advantageously cured for wash.

It is not my office to argue the point as to the advantages which may accrue from a free trade in tobacco; but this I know, and confidently assert it, from actual experiments made in this province, that a more lucrative article cannot be grown.

The consumption in South America, in 1850, was 147,178 lbs.; and the annual increase since 1840 has been a higher percentage than the increase of population, chiefly owing to extension in sheep-farming.

The probable expense of cultivation per acre may be as under:—

£s.d.

Rent0100

Labor, 12 months5200

Ditto, 2 months8100

Ploughing three times220

Harrowing twice100

Manure, say2100

Seed, say0100

£6720

The Sydney average quantity is said to be 11⅓ cwt. per acre, say 10 cwt.; and the cost price per lb. will be 14½d., or £6 15s. 4d. per cwt. The profit will at once be seen on this article of consumption.

Miscellaneous Drugs.—The blood tree (Croton gossypifolia), an evergreen shrub, native of the Trinidad mountains, is remarkable for yielding, when wounded, a thick juice resembling blood in color, which is one of the most powerful astringents I know of, and as such would be valuable to medical science. The bark of Croton Cascarilla is, as we have seen in a former section, aromatic, and the seeds of C. Tiglium, the physic nut, are purgative; so are those of the purging nut (Jatropha multifida), and another species (J. gossypifolia).

The pods of cow-itch (Mucuna pruriens) act as a vermifuge; the roots of the Ruellia tuberosa, or manyroot, and the bulbs of the white lily (Pancratium Carribæum and maritimum), are emetic. The Indian root or bastard ipecacuan (Asclepias curassavica) has medicinal properties. A. tuberosa is used as a mild cathartic, and a remedy for a variety of disorders. Hydrastis canadensis, or Canadian yellow root, is a valuable bitter, and furnishes a useful yellow dye. Knowltonia vesicatoria is used commonly as a blister in the Cape Colony. Ranunculus saleratus (the R. indicus of Roxburgh, and B. camosus of Wallich), common in India, is also used by the natives for blistering purposes.

A kind of sedge rush, common in swampy places in the West India islands, the Adme cyperus, enjoys a reputation for the cure of yellow fever. It is also stated to be cordial, diuretic and cephalic, serviceable in the first stages of the dropsy, good in vomitings, fluxes, &c.

Dr. Impey, the residentiary surgeon of Malwa, has just confidence in the indigenous drugs in use by the natives of the East, many of which are quite unknown in European practice. He believes that, in the Indian bazaars and the jungle, drugs having precisely the same effect as those of Europe may be discovered, and has recently drawn up a list of ninety substances, which are perfect substitutes for an equal number of European medicines. The class of tonics, in particular, is most amply supplied, and the Englishman is not the only animal who suffers from disorders of the digestive organs.

My friend Dr. Hamilton, of Plymouth, recently brought under the notice of the profession the medical properties of the prickly poppy or Mexican thistle (Argemone Mexicana). It is indigenous to and grows wild in the greatest profusion throughout the whole of the Caribbean islands, and may be found at every season of the year covered with its bright golden blossoms, and bearing its prickly capsules in all their several stages of maturity. It is an annual plant, attaining a height of about two feet, growing abundantly in low and hot uncultivated spots. Its stem is round and prickly, furnished with alternate branches and thorny leaves. The seeds possess an emetic quality. The whole plant abounds in a yellow milky juice, resembling gamboge in color, and not improbably possessing properties similar to the seeds. In Nevis the oil is obtained from the bruised seeds by boiling, and sold by the negroes in small phials, containing about an ounce each, under the name of "thistle oil," at the price of a quarter of a dollar each. The usual dose for dry bellyache is thirty drops upon a lump of sugar, and its effect is perfectly magical, relieving the pain instantaneously, throwing the patient into a profound and refreshing sleep, and in a few hours relieving the bowels gently of the contents. This oil seems fitted to compete in utility with the far more costly and less agreeable oil of the croton.

The seeds of the sandbox (Hura crepitans) when bruised, operate powerfully as emetico-cathartic. It is probable that an oil might be obtained from them similar in its operation to the thistle oil.

A cucurbitaceous fruit, one of the Luffas (called by Von Martius Luffa purgans), a tribe closely allied to the colocynth and mornordicas, growing in South America, is a powerful purgative, and is used in the province of Pernambuco, where it is called Cabacinha. The fruit is about the size of a small pear and resembles the wild cucumber. An infusion of a fourth part of one of these fruits is administered chiefly in the form of an injection.

Another species (Luffa drastica, of Martius) is also employed for the same purpose.

The Luffa purgans grows spontaneously in the suburbs of Recieffe, the capital of the province of Pernambuco, and flowers in November and December. The fruit is a drastic purgative, and an infusion of it is used either internally or in the form of clyster. The tincture is prepared by macerating, for twenty-eight hours or more, four of the fruit deprived of the seeds in a bottle of spirit 21 degrees. The dose is three or four ounces daily, which occasions much sickness.

Poisons.—The vegetable kingdom (observes Mr. Simple), to which man is largely indebted for the materials of food, clothing, and shelter, produces also some of the most deadly poisons with which science, experience, or accident, has made him acquainted. In examining the poisonous productions of the vegetable kingdom, we find that their properties are generally due to the presence of some acid or alkali contained in the plant from which they are derived. Oil of bitter almonds and cherry laurel water are poisonous in consequence of containing prussic acid. Opium owes its activity to the alkaloid morphia. The Upas-tiente derives its energetic powers from the alkaloid strychnia; conia is the active principle of hemlock; veratria of hellebore; aconita of monk's hood; and although there are several poisonous plants in which the active principle has not yet been detected, there can be little doubt that such a principle exists, although it has hitherto eluded the researches of the chemist.—("Pharmaceutical Journal," vol. 2, p. 17.)

The bark taken from the roots of the Jamaica dogwood (Piscidia erythrina), which is extensively distributed throughout the Archipelago of the Antilles, is used for stupefying fish. The pounded root is mixed with slaked lime and the low wines or lees of the distillery, and the mixture is put into small baskets or sacks, and so suffered to wash out gradually, coloring the water to a reddish hue. The fish rise to the surface in a few minutes, when they float as if dead.

The expressed juice of the root of Maranta Arundinacea is stated to be a valuable antidote to some vegetable poisons, and also serviceable in cases of bites or stings of venomous insects or reptiles. One of the most popular remedies for the bites of snakes is a decoction of the leaves of the Guaco, or snake plant, of South America, a species of willow which flourishes along the banks of the streams in the sultry regions shaded by other trees. It is said to be both a preventive and cure.

Mr. Edward Otto, writing from Cuba to the "Gardener's Magazine" for May, 1842, p. 286, describes the guaco as a tree growing from four to eight feet in height, with beautiful dark green leaves, having a brown tinge round the margin. The blossoms are small, of a bluish brown, and hang like loose bunches of grapes at the points of the shoots, or even on the stem itself, as it has seldom branches. The milky sap is said to have poisonous effects. "I was told (he adds) that this plant is used efficiently in cholera and yellow fever." This tree is said to be the Camæladia ilicifolia of Swartz, common in Antigua and Hayti, being known in Antigua by the popular name of the holly-leaved maiden plum.

ALOES.—The drug called aloes is the bitter, resinous, inspissated juice of the leaves of various species of an arborescent plant of the lily family, with a developed stem and large succulent leaves, growing principally in tropical and sub-tropical regions, and having a wide extent of range, being produced in Borneo and the East, Africa, Arabia, and the West Indies; many are also natives of the Cape of Good Hope. The plant will thrive in almost any soil, and, when once established, it is extremely difficult to eradicate.

The cultivation and manufacture are of the most simple kind. The usual mode of propagating the plants is by suckers; and all the care required is to keep them free from weeds.

From the high price which the best Barbados aloes fetches in the market, £7 per cwt., its culture might be profitably extended to many of the other islands. The aloes plant is indigenous to the soil of Jamaica, and although handled by thousands of the peasantry and others, there is not perhaps one in five thousand who understands its properties or the value of the plant. With the Jamaicans it is commonly used in fever cases, by slicing the leaves, permitting the juice to escape partially, and then applying them to the head with bandages;—this is the only generally known property which it possesses there.

A series of trials made recently in Paris proved that cordage manufactured from the fibre of this plant grown in Algiers, was far preferable in comparative strength to that manufactured from hemp. Cables, of equal size, showed that that made of the aloe raised a weight of one-fifth more than that of hemp.

The drug is imported into this country under the names of Socotrine, East Indian or Hepatic, Barbados, Cape and Caballine aloes. It contains a substance called Aloetine, which some regard as its active principle. The various species now defined are—Aloe spicata, vulgaris, Socotrina, Indica, rubescens, Arabica, linguæ-formis and Commelina. The average imports in 1841 and 1842 were only about 170,780 cwts.; it is now much larger, and a great portion of the supply is drawn from the Cape colony.

The mode of preparing the drug, which I have myself seen in the West Indies, is exceedingly simple. When the plant has arrived at proper maturity, the laborers go into the field with tubs and knives, and cut the largest and most succulent leaves close to the stalk; these are placed upright in the tubs, side by side, so that the sap may flow out of the wound. Sometimes a longitudinal incision is made from top to bottom of the leaf, to facilitate the discharge. The crude juice thus obtained is placed in shallow flat-bottomed receivers, and exposed to the sun until it has acquired sufficient consistency to be packed in gourds for exportation. In preparing the coarser kind, or horse aloes, the leaves are cut into junks and thrown into the tubs, there to lie till the juice is pretty well drained out; they are then squeezed by the hand, and water, in the proportion of one quart to ten of juice, is added, after which it is boiled to a due consistence and emptied into large shallow coolers.

The following analysis by M. Edmond Robiquet of a specimen of Socotrine aloes, obtained from M. Chevallier, is given in the sixth volume of the "Pharmaceutical Journal," p. 277. The constituents in 100 parts were:—

Pure aloes (Aloetine)85.00

Ulmate of potash2.00

Sulphate of lime2.00

Carbonate of potashtraces.

Carbonate of lime

Phosphate of lime

Gallic acid.25

Albumen8.00

The true Socotrine aloes is the produce of A. Socotrina, which grows abundantly in the island of Socotra in the Indian Ocean. Lieutenant Wellstead says, the hills on the west side of the island are covered for an extent of miles with aloe plants. The aloe grows spontaneously on the limestone mountains of Socotra, from 500 to 3,000 feet above the level of the sea. The produce is brought to Tamarida and Colliseah, the principal town and harbor for exports. In 1833, the best quality sold for 2s. a pound, while for the more indifferent the price was 13d. The value is much impaired by the careless manner in which the aloes is gathered and packed. Aloes once formed the staple of its traffic, for which it was chiefly resorted to; but only small quantities are now exported. It was formerly shipped by the way of Smyrna and Alexandria, but is usually now brought by the way of Bombay; Melinda, on the Zanzibar coast, and Maccula on the Arabian shore, furnish the greater part of that sold in Europe as Socotrine aloes. It comes home in chests or packages of 150 to 200 lbs. wrapt in skins of the gazelle, sometimes in casks holding half a ton or more. It is somewhat transparent, of a garnet or yellowish red color. The smell is not very unpleasant, approaching to myrrh. Socotrine aloes, although long considered the best kind, is now below Barbados aloes in commercial value.

About two tons were imported from Socotra in 1833, but a much larger quantity could be obtained if required.

The price of Socotrine aloes in the Liverpool market, in the early part of 1853, was 30s. to £6 the cwt.; of Cape, 30s. to 32s.

East Indian, or Hepatic aloes.— The real hepatic aloes, so called from its liver color, is believed to be the produce of A. Arabica, or perfoliala, which grows in Yemen in Arabia, from whence it is exported by the way of Bombay to Europe. According to Dr. Thomson and the "Materia Medica," it is duller in its color than the other kinds, is bitterer, and has a less pleasant aroma than the Socotrine aloes. It should not be liquid, which deteriorates the quality.

A. Indica—a species with reddish flowers, common in dry situations, in the north-west provinces of India, is that from which an inferior sort of the drug is produced. It is obtained in Guzerat, Salem, and Trichinopoly, and fetches a local price of 2d. to 3d. a pound. In the Bombay market, Socotrine aloes fetches wholesale 16s. to 20s. the Surat maund of 41 lbs., and Maccula aloes only 9s.

Barbados aloes, is the produce of A. vulgaris, or A. barbadensis, a native of the Cape colony, and is often passed off for the Hepatic. It is brought home in calabashes, or large gourd shells, containing from 60 to 70 lbs. each, or more. It is duskier in hue than the East Indian species, being a darkish brown or black, and the taste is more nauseous and intensely bitter.

In 1786 one hogshead and 409 gourds of aloes were exported from Barbados. In 1827, there were about 96,000 packages shipped from the island. In 1844, there were 4,600 packages exported. The exports have fallen off considerably, only about 850 gourds having been shipped in the season of 1849-50; but in 1851 it increased to 2,505 gourds.

Caballine, or Horse-aloes, is the coarsest species or refuse of the Barbados aloes, and from its rank fetid smell is only useful for veterinary medicine. It is also obtained from Spain and Senegal.

A very good description of the mode of cultivating and preparing the aloes in Barbados is given in the 8th vol. of the "London Medical Journal":—

The lands in the vicinity of the sea, that is from two to three miles, which are rather subject to drought than otherwise, and are so strong and shallow as not to admit of the planting of sugar-canes with any prospect of success, are generally found to answer best for the aloe-plant. The stones, at least the larger ones, are first picked up, and either packed in heaps upon the most shallow barren spots, or laid round the field as a dry wall. The land is then lightly ploughed and very carefully cleared of all noxious weeds, lined at one foot distance from row to row, and the young plants set like cabbages, at about five or six inches from each other. This regular mode of lining and setting the plants is practised only by the most exact planters, in order to facilitate the frequent weeding by hand; because if the ground be not kept perfectly clean and free from weeds, the produce will be very small. Aloes will bear being planted in any season of the year, even in the dryest, as they will live on the surface of the earth for many weeks without a drop of rain. The most general time of planting them, however, is from April to June.

In the March following, the laborers carry a parcel of tubs and jars into the field, and each takes a slip or breadth of it, and begins by laying hold of a bunch of the blades, as much as he can conveniently grasp with one hand, whilst with the other he cuts it just above the surface of the earth as quickly as possible (that the juice may not be wasted), and then places the branches in the tub bunch by bunch or handful by handful. When the first tub is thus packed quite full, a second is begun (each laborer having two); and by the time the second is filled, all the juice is generally drained out of the blades in the first tub. The blades are then lightly taken out and thrown over the land by way of manure, and the juice is poured out into a jar. The tub is then filled again with blades, and so alternately, till the laborer has produced his jar full, or about four gallons and a half of juice, which is often done in six or seven hours, and he has then the remainder of the day to himself, it being his employer's interest to get each day's operation as quickly done as possible. It may be observed that although aloes are often cut in nine, ten, or twelve months after being planted, they are not in perfection till the second or third year, and that they will be productive for a length of time, say ten or twelve years, or even for a longer time, if good dung or manure of any kind is stirred over the field once in three or four years, or oftener if convenient.

The aloe juice will keep for several weeks without injury. It is therefore not boiled till a sufficient quantity is procured to make it an object for the boiling house. In the large way, three boilers, or coppers are placed to one fire, though some have but two, and the small planters only one boiler. The boilers are filled with the juice, and as it ripens or becomes more inspissated by a constant but regular fire, it is ladled from boiler to boiler, and fresh juice is added to that farthest from the fire, till the juice in that nearest the fire (by much the smallest of the three) becomes of a proper consistency, to be skipped or ladled out into gourds or other small vessels used for its final reception. The proper time to skip or ladle it out of the last boiler is when it has arrived at what is termed a resin height, or when it cuts freely or in thin flakes from the edges of a small wooden slice that is dipped from time to time into the boiler for that purpose. A little lime water is used by some aloe boilers during the process, when the ebullition is too great.

CAPE ALOES is the produce chiefly of A. spicata, and A. Commelini, which are found growing wild in great abundance in the interior of the Cape Colony. It has not the dark opaque appearance of the other species. About fifty miles from Cape Town is a mountainous tract, almost entirely covered with numerous species and varieties of the plant, and some of the extensive arid plains in the interior of the colony are crowded with it. The settlers go forth and pitch their waggous and campa on these spots to obtain the produce. The shipments from Table Bay and the eastern port of Algoa Bay are very considerable. The odor of the Cape aloes is stronger and more disagreeable than that of the Socotrine or Barbados, and the color is more like gamboge. It is brought over in chests and skins, the latter being preferred.

Mr. George Dunsterville, surgeon of Algoa Bay, gives the following description of the manufacture of Cape aloes:—

A shallow pit is dug, in which is spread a bullock's hide or sheep's skin. The leaves of the aloe plants in the immediate vicinity of this pit are stripped off and piled up on the skin to variable heights. These are left for a few days. The juice exudes from the leaves, and is received by the skin beneath. The Hottentot then collects in a basket or other convenient article the produce of many heaps, which is then put into an iron pot capable of holding eighteen or twenty gallons. Fire is applied to effect evaporation, during which the contents of the pot are constantly stirred to prevent burning. The cooled liquor is then poured into wooden cases of about three feet square by one foot deep, or into goat or sheep skins, and thus is filled for the market. In the colony aloes realises about 2¼ d. to 3½ d. per pound. The Hottentots and Dutch boors employ indiscriminately different species of aloe in the preparation of the drug.

The Cape aloes, which is usually prized the highest in the English market, is that made at the Missionary institution of Bethelsdorp (a small village about nine miles from Algoa Bay, and chiefly inhabited by Hottentots and their missionary teachers). Its superiority arises not from the employment of a particular species of aloe, for all species are used, but from the greater care and attention paid to what is technically called the cooking of the aloes; that is, the evaporation, and to the absence of all adulterating substances (fragments of limestone, sand, earth, &c.), often introduced by manufacturers.

Mr. Moodie, in his "Ten Years' Residence in Southern Africa," gives a somewhat similar account.

Mr. Bunbury states that, about the neighbourhood of Graham's Town, three large kinds of aloe are very abundant, which form striking and characteristic features of the scenery; they grow irregularly scattered over the parched and naked faces of the hills, but most abundantly among the low broken ledges and knolls of sandstone rock, and are often seen spiring up above the evergreen bushes in the ravines, and crowning the cliffs. One kind grows to the height of a man. They are plants of a strange, rigid, and ungraceful appearance, but with very handsome flowers, which form tall and dense spikes, of a fine coral-red color in two of the species (A. arborescens and lineata?), and of an orange scarlet in the third (A. glaucescens?). When in blossom they are conspicuous at a great distance, and might easily be mistaken, when seen from far off, for soldiers in red uniforms.