TOBACCO CULTIVATION 40? 



It was in this wise : when Sir J. P. Grant was appointed 

 Governor, he, being an Indian friend of mine, asked me what 

 he could do for the introduction into the Island of useful 

 vegetable products, and he came and stayed with me for a 

 couple of nights to talk it over. I reminded him that it was 

 a scandal to our Government that with the East and West 

 Indies in our possession we had not a good cigar from either ; 

 that in India (excellent cigars are now made in India) nothing 

 but Manilla cheroots were smoked by Europeans, and in 

 England Havannas. I suggested my getting seeds of various 

 good kinds from Cuba, Manilla, &c. through our Consuls, 

 and histories of their manufactures ; and that he could get 

 some enlightened Jamaica proprietors to commence the 

 cultivation. This we carried out, and in the third year 

 Sir J. P. Grant x sent me a sample of tobacco grown in Jamaica 

 from their seeds, which I sent to an expert in London who 

 pronounced it as most promising. I also suggested to Sir 

 John offering prizes for the best cigars. His successor Grey, 

 also an old Indian, would not trouble himself to encourage 

 the experiment, but my old friend Musgrave 2 did, and sent 

 me several boxes of excellent cigars. Afterwards the quality 

 of the article went down, some boxes I ordered arrived full of 

 weevils and were carelessly packed, and I gave up smoking 

 the Jamaicas. Quite lately I have had good accounts, and 

 the box you send bears testimony to them. 



It was not enough, as he insisted to Dr. Fawcett in 1897, 

 to be content with raising smokable tobacco and then taking 

 no more trouble. The best flavours must be obtained, by 

 scientific experiments on the various kinds raised in different 

 soils, and the selection of the best seedlings. Here the 

 difficulty lay in the time spent in reaching results after 



1 Sir John Peter Grant, K.C.B. (1807-93), who bore the same name as his 

 father, Chief Justice of Calcutta, was Secretary to the Government of Bengal at 

 the time of Hooker's visit. He played a distinguished part in Indian adminis- 

 tration both before and during the Mutiny, and became Lieutenant-Governor 

 of Bengal, leaving India in 1862. In 1866 he succeeded Eyre as Governor of 

 Jamaica, and in the seven years of his administration effected a total reform, 

 both legislative and economic. 



* Sir Anthony Musgrave (1828-88) was a successful Colonial Administrator, 

 whose career lay in North America, South Africa, the West Indies, and South 

 Australia before he became Governor of Jamaica in January 1877, afterwards 

 proceeding to Queensland. He published Studies in Political Economy, 1875. 



