429 



On the Culture of Tobacco : from a Remeiv of " Brodi- 

 gan's Treatise on the Tobacco Plant" in the Gardener's 

 Magazine. 

 Tobacco was introduced into the county of Cork, with the 

 potato, by Sir Walter Ralegh ; but the culture of the former 

 does not appear to have made much progress, though, ac- 

 cording to Humboldt, it preceded that of the potato, in Europe, 

 more than 120 years, having been extensively cultivated in 

 Portugal at the time that Sir Walter Ralegh brought it from 

 Virginia to England in 1568. A writer in 1725, quoted by 

 Brodigan, says, " I have not heard that a root of tobacco was 

 ever planted in this kingdom. " An act of George III. re- 

 pealed several preceding acts that prohibited the growth and 

 produce of tobacco in Ireland, and this is the foundation on 

 which Ireland now rests her claim to that branch of culture. 

 Until the year 1828, Brodigan observes, the culture was 

 limited ; but, in that year, there were 130 acres under tobacco ; 

 and, in 1829, 1000 acres in Wexford alone. "It has been 

 partially cultivated in the adjoining counties of Carlow, Wa- 

 terford, and Kilkenny, and other places. In the province of 

 Connaught, an experiment was made in the vicinity of West- 

 port- It has been grown, in one or two instances, near Dublin ; 

 in the northern section of the kingdom, two or three trials 

 have been taken place, on a small scale ;" and our author has 

 cultivated saveral acres in the neighbourhood of Drogheda, 

 preparing the soil by horse-labour, as for turnips. 



The culture of tobacco in Ireland, as practised by Brodigan, 

 is thus given: — "Hot-beds, like those made for cucumbers, 

 are to be prepared in March, and the seeds sown any time 

 from the 15th of that month to the 1st of April. In the be- 

 ginning of May, the plants may be hardened by exposure to 

 the air; and, by the 15th or 20th of that month, they may 

 be transplanted into the open field without injury. Forty 

 thousand plants, fit for transplanting, may be raised on an 

 area of 100 square feet. According to Carver, a square yard 

 will rear about 500 plants, and allow proper space for their 

 nurture till they are fit for transplanting. The field was 

 prepared in every respect the same as for turnips; the drills 

 or ridgelets were 18 in. apart, and the manure, of which a 

 good supply was given, buried in the centre of each ridgelet. 

 The plants were put in with spades, at 18 in. apart, along the 

 centre of the ridgelet, and afterwards watered. "The planters 

 were followed by women, with their aprons full of long grass, 

 with which they covered each plant, and confined it by placing 

 a stone or lump of earth at both ends; this covering is indes- 

 pensable, unless the weather prove wet and cloudy. Such 



