ESSENTIALS IN TOBACCO CULTURE. 



CHAPTER I. 



ORIGIN AND SPREAD OF TOBACCO CULTURE. 



The truth of the assertion made by the Chinese 

 that they cultivated and knew the use of tobacco long 

 anterior to the discovery of America by Columbus, is 

 not sustained by any records entitled to credit by civi- 

 lized nations. When or where it was first cultivated or 

 used is one of tbe mysteries which rest in the unrelieved 

 darkness of unlettered history. Pipes from prehistoric 

 mounds in the United States, Mexico and Peru prove 

 the extreme antiquity of tobacco, and pipes are found 

 only in American ruins or mounds. Columbus, during 

 his first voyage, saw the natives smoking it, and in sub- 

 sequent voyages the fact was noted that it was used by 

 the aborigines in smoking, chewing and snuffing. It is 

 supposed to have taken the name tobacco, by which the 

 Spaniards called it, from the tobaco, which was the 

 inhaling apparatus of the Caribbees. Benzoni, who trav- 

 eled in America in 1542-1556, says the Mexicans called 

 the plant "tobacco." On the continent of America it 

 was usually called "petum" ; by the West India island- 

 ers, "yoli." 



In 1558, Francisco Fernandes, a physician who had 

 been sent to Mexico by Philip II to investigate and re- 

 port on the natural productions of that country, brought 

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