l64 JVFW SOUTH WALES. 



in tlie Colony, said that lie had always found the tobacco from the 

 upland valleys much finer, both in flavour and colour, than that grown 

 on the lower flats. 



The Victorian Government sent ]\Ir. Sinclair to America last year 

 to inquire and report on the cultivation of sugar-beet and tobacco. 

 In his report, page 37, he says : — "■ It is not on these rich bottoms 

 that the best tobacco in Kentucky is grown, as might be expected. 

 Here the farmer has his corn patch. For the tobacco crop the upland 

 slope, if not too steep and not liable to be washed or scoured, to the 

 loss of soil or plants, and the elevated flat portion of the rising 

 ground is cleared of timber for tobacco-growing. In this upland, 

 undulating timber country the finest tobacco is produced.^' 



The example of Java is also very much to the point. There are two 

 classes of Java leaf sold in Europe. One brings 6d. to 8d. per lb., 

 and the other from 2s. to 3s. per lb. The former is grown in alter- 

 nation with rice on the flats, the other in the upland valleys. 



If we will persist in growing from the same seed year after year 

 on these rich flats, there is no help for it, the leaf will get bigger, 

 stronger, and coarser every year, until at last it becomes unsaleable. 



At an early stage of my Australian experience, I used to insist that 

 tobacco should not follow tobacco year after year on the same soil. I 

 still hold to that opinion as a general rule ; but I am bound to admit 

 that there are exceptions in which better tobacco has been grown in 

 the third and fourth years than in the first and second on the same 

 land, but they are exceptions. The growers had waged successful war 

 with the weeds, grubs, and caterpillars that infested the land when 

 newly cleared, so that, as the land became cleaned and sweetened by 

 constant tillage and care, it yielded better crops of better tobacco year 

 after year. But, as a rule, it is far better to alternate the tobacco crop 

 with a grain or fodder crop. 



There is another matter which has worked against the tobacco 

 industry — it is the want of an efiicient organisation for the disposal of 

 the crop when harvested and matured. Two brothers cultivated 

 tobacco on the halves on a certain piece of ground. When the crop 

 was fit for market it was evenly divided into two portions, one brother 

 sent his share down to Sydney, and it was sold at 5d. per Hi. The 

 other sent his to the same firm a fortnight later with a letter, pointing- 

 out its excellent quality, and it was sold at 6^d. 



The practice of sending small lots of tobacco to be sold at auction 

 at the produce sales amongst pumpkins, maize, potatoes, hay, chaff, 

 and onions, is altogether bad. It is not worth a manufacturer's while 

 to keep a man to go round every day to look for and buy these little 

 parcels, so the middleman or jobber comes in and makes a big profit 

 for any small lots of good tobacco that come up for sale. We want 

 some system by which we can ensure a fair price being obtained for 

 every parcel of well-grown, well-cured, and well-assorted leaf sent to 

 Sydney, so that careful growers might be encouraged to even greater 

 care ; but while it is a mere chance what price he gets, no man cares 

 to bestow much labour in putting up his crop for market. 



Another difficulty which we have to contend with is the uncertainty 

 of the seasons. There have been times when it has been possible to 



