842 FOREST CULTURE AND 
otherwise the yield as a rule is large, and the soil in 
many places well adapted for this culture. Leaves 
of large size are frequently obtained. The moister 
and warmer northern and eastern regions of our colo- 
ny are likely to produce the best tobacco, if the final 
preparation of the leaf for the manufacturer is effected 
by experienced skill. The cruder kinds are obtained 
With ease, and so leaves for covering cigars. Virgin 
soil, with rich loam, is the best for tobacco - culture ; 
and such soil should also contain a fair proportion of 
lime and potash, or should be enriched with a calca- 
reous manure and ashes, or with well - decomposed 
stable- manure. The seedlings, two months or less 
old, are transplanted. When the plants are coming 
into flower the leading top-shoots are nipped off, and 
the young shoots must also be broken off. A few 
weeks afterward the leaves will turn to a greenish- 
yellow, which is a sign that the plants are fit to be 
cut, or that the ripe leaves can gradually be pulled. 
In the former case the stems are split ;. the drying is 
then effected in barns, by suspension from sticks across 
beams. The drying process occupies four or five weeks, 
and may need to be assisted by artificial heat. Stripped 
of the stalks, the leaf- blades are then tied into bun- 
dles, to undergo sweating, or a kind of slight fer- 
mentation. It does not answer to continue tobacco- 
culture beyond two years on the same soil, uninter- 
ruptedly. A prominent variety is Nicotiana latissima, 
Miller, or N. macrophylla, Lehm., yielding largely 
the Chinese, the Oronoco, and the Maryland tobacco. 
The dangerously - powerful nicotine, a volatile, acrid, 
alkaline, oily liquid, and nicotianin, a bitter, aromatic 
lamellar substance, are both derived from tobacco in 
all its parts, and are therapeutic agents. 
