TOBACCO. 435 



The price it commanded was a great inducement to the early settlers in favor of its 

 cultivation, the market value in 1617 being from thirty-seven to seventy-five cents per pound, 

 according to quality. The amount of tobacco produced by the colonists in 1622 was 60,000 

 pounds, which was more than doubled during the next twenty years. The total product in 

 the United States in 1880 was nearly 500,000,000 pounds, being the yield of 638,841 acres. 



The evil effects of its use are attributed mainly to nicotine, a deadly poison which it 

 contains, and which, when taken in sufficient quantities, will produce convulsions, followed by 

 paralysis and death, as has been proved by numerous experiments on animals, it being one of 

 the most powerful nerve-poisons known. The word &quot;nicotine,&quot; as applied to this plant, is 

 said by Torrey to have been derived from John Nicot, embassador from France to Portugal 

 in 1560, who introduced this weed into Europe. The word &quot;tobacco&quot; is supposed to have 

 been derived from a place in Yucatan called by that name. The quantity of nicotine con 

 tained in tobacco varies greatly with different varieties and modes of culture, according to 

 the best authority, as has been found by careful analysis of the plant; that produced on 

 heavily-manured lands, as a general rule, containing a larger per cent, than that cultivated 

 with a less quantity. The highest per cent, of nicotine found in about forty different speci 

 mens of the cured product, representing different varieties, different types of the same 

 variety, with different methods of cultivation and curing, was 5.81; lowest, 0.63; only two 

 specimens of the whole number being found below one per cent., and more than one-third 

 above four per cent. By the analyses of Posselt and Riemann, 10,000 parts of fresh leaves 

 contained six of nicotine, one of nicotianine, 287 of bitter extractive, 174 of gum, 26.7 of 

 green resin, 26 of albumen, 104.8 of a substance analogous to gluten, 51 of malic acid, 12 of 

 malate of ammonia, 20.6 of potash salts, 40.6 of lime salts, 8.8 of silica, 496.9 of lignine, 

 and 88.28 parts of water. The odorous or volatile principle of tobacco is supposed to be due 

 to the nicotainine it contains. The ash element is exceedingly large, as will be seen by 

 burning the leaves. One hundred parts of the ash of tobacco, according to the analyses of 

 Fresenius and &quot;Will, contains 30.67 of potash, 33.36 of lime (together with a little magnesia), 

 5.95 common salt, 6.03 phosphates, 18.39 silica, and 5.60 gypsum. The superior kinds con 

 tain the largest amount of potash, that of inferior quality the largest amount of lime. 



Much labor is involved in the culture of tobacco, and it is also liable to many injuries, 

 either from insect enemies, severe storms, or early frosts. A fine field of tobacco is often 

 utterly ruined when nearly ready to cut, by a hail-storm of only a few moments duration, 

 while a strong wind will frequently do great damage by breaking off the leaves and blowing 

 over the plants. An untimely frost, just at the period of harvesting, has been known to not 

 only nip the leaves of the entire crop, but with them the &quot; bud of hope &quot; in many a farmer s 

 heart, respecting a field which perhaps during the entire season had been his pride, and upon 

 which he had bestowed much careful labor. It is a very exhausting crop, and requires fre 

 quent and large applications of manure in order to cultivate it without impoverishing the soil. 

 Some of the most fertile lands of the country have been in this manner injured by its growth; 

 some of the exhausted lands of Virginia, and many of the New England tobacco farms, for 

 instance, being examples. 



Farmers are too apt to rob other farm crops of the manure which should be appropriated 

 to them, for the purpose of supplying their tobacco-fields, while, if sufficient manure is pur 

 chased to supply all the crops, considerable expense would be involved which might not be 

 warranted by the profits of the farm. Sometimes the market is overstocked with tobacco, 

 and the farmer cannot find a ready sale at a fair price, and is obliged to keep it over 

 another year or two before disposing of it the capital invested in it thus lying idle and 

 bringing no return. In many sections, however, notwithstanding the risk of its culture, it 

 has thus far, in the main, averaged one of the best-paying crops produced, when regarded 

 simply from a business point of view, and the exhaustion of soil either prevented by liberal 

 manuring, or not being taken into the account. 



