624 



THE TEOPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[March i, 1884. 



than men. Strong, picked men cut out the thick, 

 tougl) wood from beneath the soil, and the lighter 

 puruiug is done by the boys. The best primer can- 

 not average more than twenty full-grown bushes in a 

 day. — Indian AgrktiUurist. 



TOBACCO OF COMMERCE. 



(Paper read he/ore the Chemisls' Assistants' Association, 

 by C. E. Palmer.) 

 My reason for selecting the words "Tobacco of Com- 

 merce" as tlie title of my paper is that there are 

 altogether more than forty species of tobacco, but only 

 about ten of them are to any extent used. 



BOTANICAL OEIGIN OF THK PLANT. 



All tobacco is derived from the genus Nicotiana. 

 The nicotiana is a genus of the N. O. Atiopacca, con- 

 sisting of sticky-leaved herbiiceous plants, natives of 

 tropical America and Eastern Asia. The genus derives 

 its name from Jean Nicot, a Portuguese, who introduced 

 the tobacco-plant into France in 15G0. Nicotiana 'fa- 

 bncum furnishes more than half the tobacco used in 

 this country. The specific name is derived, according 

 to Humboldt, from the Haytiau word for the pipe in 

 which the herb is smoked. iV. Tabaeum is a hand- 

 some plant attaining a height of 3 to 6 feet, with large 

 oblong lance-shaijed leaves, some of which are attached 

 to the stem for some distance before they are given 

 off (decurrent). These leaves are covered with mmute 

 hairs, on the summit of which a gland ia situated, 

 which secretes tlie viscid fluid that invests the 

 surface of the plant. 



The flowers are in panicles on the end of the stem ; 

 the corolla is more than an inch in length, funn - 

 shaped, with a distended throat, and of a pretty cuse 

 or pink hue; this species is largely cultivated in South 

 America, Virginia, China, Hoilaud, and various parts 

 of Germany and France. 



The cultivation of tobacco is illegal in this country, 

 except on a very small scale in a botanical garden, 

 and has been prohibited by law since 1660. 



N. rustica is the next important species, and is grown 

 in the East Indies, Manila, and in other quarters of 

 the globe. It is a smaller plant than N. Tabaeum, 

 has stalked ovate leaves, and a greenish corolla, with 

 a cylindrical tube; it grows more quickly, ripens earlier, 

 its leaves dry moi'e easily, and may witli some care 

 be made to retain its green colour, which is quite 

 in.pjsaible with those of ]Sf. 2'abacum. 



iV. rejMmda is a native of Havana, its leaves clasp 

 the stem, and tlie corolla is while, with a slender 

 tube. This .'species is used in the manufacture of some 

 of the most higlily-esteemed cigars. 



N. latissma is employed in the manufacture of Orinoco 

 tobacco, but none is to be obtained now. 



N. quadrivah-is and N. muUivaleis ha\'e, as their 

 names imply, lour-valved or several-valved capsules ; 

 these species are chiefly used in the manufacture of 

 cigai's. 



HISTORY or TOBACCO AND SM0KI^•G. 



It is stated by Von Martins that the practice of 

 smoking tobacco has been widely diffused from time 

 immemorial among the natives of South America as 

 well as among the inliabitants of the Mississippi as 

 far North as the plautcaii be cultivated. Europeans 

 first became acquainted with tobacco in li92, when 

 Columbus and his followers landed in Cuba, and they 

 introduced it into Europe for its medicinal properties. 

 The custom of inhaling the smoke was learned from 

 the Indians, and by the end of the sixteenth century 

 had become generally known throughout Spain and 

 Portugal, whence it passed into the rest of Europe 

 and into Turkey, Egypt, and India, notwithstanding 

 that it was opposed by the severest enactments both 

 cf Christian and Mahoiiiiuedau Goveruuieuts. 



The first tolerably-exact <Iescription of the tobaoou 

 plant is that given by Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo, 

 Governor of St. Domiugo, in his "Historia genera' 

 de las Indus," printed at Seville in 1535. In this 

 work the plant is said to be smoked through a branched 

 tube of the shade of the letter Y, which tlie natives 

 called -'Tobacco." 



It was not nntil the middle of this century that 

 growing tobacco was seen in Europe, first at Lisbon, 

 wheuce the French Ambassadar, Jean Nicot, sent seeds 

 to France (in 1560) as thoso of a valuable medicinal 

 plant, which was even then diffused throughout Portugal. 

 Monardes, writing in 1571, speaks of tobacco as brought 

 from Spain a few yeais previously, and valued for its 

 beauty and for its medicinal virtues. 



The practice of smoking tobacco did not gain much 

 ground among the nations of the North until Sir Walter 

 Raleigh and his companions introduced it into England 

 in 1586. At first it met with the most violent opposition. 

 Kings prohibited it ; Popes fulminated Bulls against 

 it ; and Sultans senteuced smokers to the most cruel 

 kiuds of death. Persecution, however, ' only helped 

 to spread it, and at present smoking may be said 

 to be universally practised by both civilised and un- 

 civilised man. 



COLLECTION AND PHEPARATIOS FOR THE MARKET. 



There are two ways in which the leaves are collected, 

 viz., that in which tl,ie plant is cut off near the root, 

 and that in which it is only stripped on its leaves. 



1st. The tobacco harvest begins in August, when 

 the plants are regarded as ripe. At this period the 

 stems are cut oif from the plants just above their 

 roots, and then hung up in the drying-houses, where 

 they are exposed to a considerable degree of heat, aud 

 during the process of curing, as it is termed, they 

 become moist, or in other words are said to sweat. 

 They are then further dried and stripped of the leaves, 

 and the latter are then tied up in bundles called 

 "hands," and packed for exportation. Le.aves from 

 South America are sent over in stout hides of cattle, 

 which are there too abundant to be costly. Tobacco 

 from North America aud the West Indies comes in 

 boxes, timber being there very plentiful ; the Asiatics 

 use strong coarse cloth of hemp or flax. 



2ud. The plant is stripped of its leaves, which un- 

 dergo a "sweating" process for four days by being 

 placed in large heaps. They are then hungup in airy 

 sheds to dry, again placed in heaps, and sweated for 

 one or two weeks, and, while slightly moist, tied up 

 in bundles called "hands," and put into barrels for 

 exportation. 



PRINCIPAL yAitlETIE.S OF TOBACCO. 



P>eturns, Virginia, Dutch, German, Kentucky, Bird's- 

 eye, Irish roll, iOake tobaccos— Fi'om N. tabaeum; fr^m 

 6 to 7 per cent of nicotine. 

 Turkish - - From N. rustica. 



Orinoco ■ - From N. Intissma. Not to be obtained now. 

 Latakia - - From N. rustica, 

 N. repauda, cigars 1 



N. quadrivalvis, cigars ,' From2 toSperceut of nicotine. 

 N. multivalvis, cigars ) 



Professor Tliiselton Dyer has just proved that the 

 Latakia tobacco which has hitherto been always sup- 

 posed to be derived fi om N. rustica is prepared from the 

 flowering paunicles, and even the capsules of N, tabaeum., 

 aud that its peculiar li:vvour is due to being smoked 

 for some months in the smoke of the wood of Pimis 

 Halepensis. 



M. Vidal, of Manilla, fays that N. Repanda is not 

 to be found in Cuba either wild or cultivated. All 

 the Manilla plant is quite the same, having, indeed, 

 been brought from Cuba. 



MANUFAOTUKE. 



Tlie tobacco leaves having arrived in the bonded 

 warehouses of this country, every hogshead or bale is 



