53 



Sir W. Robinson, (Governor of Trinidad) from the Colonia lOffice 

 Downing Street, who took a very great interest in the exhibit, 

 and my success was no doubt greatly due to his good and judi- 

 cious management. I exhibited again in 1876 at the Centennial 

 Exhibition, Philadelphia, taking the highest honours and medal, 

 in many instances higher than Havana competitors. 



'The Government prize of £250 given for the encouragement 

 of the tobacco industry was equally divided between Mr. Derby- 

 shire and myself, that being in the opinion of Messrs Kemble and 

 Trench the best way of encouraging the industry. A subsequent 

 prize of £50 given by the London Chamber of Commerce was 

 awarded to B. & J. Machado for a sample of Temple Hall to- 

 bacco. I have sold Temple Hall tobacco in Jamaica for £25 a 

 quintal and in Bremen, then the greatest tobacco market in the 

 world, at 5s. a pound. Some Cherry Garden tobacco was sold in 

 London by Grant Chalmers & Co. at 3s. 6d. a pound. 



'Tobacco being a garden cultivation requires constant attention 

 and supervision. It necessitated my living at Temple Hall and 

 spending three days a week there, coming into town on Tuesdays, 

 Thursdays and Saturdays, and also neglecting my town business 

 to a great extent. Then a number of people had by this time 

 gone in for the cultivation of tobacco and manufacture of cigars 

 and were flooding the foreign markets with questionable Jamaica 

 cigars to my prejudice, so I gave up the factory in favour of the 

 Machados, renting the lands to Cubans. 



' The system of cultivation pursued now, is that of the Vuelta 

 Abajo, and can never produce a high-class tobacco. It shows 

 that our tobacco is good when with such treatment we are able to 

 produce a smokable cigar, but if they would only get some good 

 Vuelta Abajo planters and grow the tobacco in the proper localities 

 with the same careful cultivation and selection that obtains in the 

 Vuelta Abajo, our cigars would compete with, if they did not 

 excel Havanas. The Vuelta Abajo lands were supposed to have 

 deteriorated very much. During the time they were using large 

 quantities of Peruvian guano their tobaccos lost the dry nutty 

 flavour they had in the sixties. Then as the demand increased 

 and the manufacturers were unable to fill all orders, they resorted 

 to Porto Rico and Sumatra tobacco which have no Havana fla- 

 vour. 



' I always found the Department of Public Gardens and Plan- 

 tations very ready and anxious to help the tobacco industry, but 

 it must be grown much as the cotton is grown in the Southern 

 States, by families dependent upon results, who cultivate small 

 holdings, giving them constant care and attention.' 



In the Report on Public Gardens for 1876-7, it is stated: — A 

 small packet of Bhilsa tobacco seed was received last year from 

 the Royal Gardens, Kew. This is the most highly reputed of all 

 the Indian kinds : only a few plants were raised : these it was 

 necessary to reserve for seed bearing. They made an extraordi- 

 nary robust growth and otherwise presented many of the charac- 



