160 TOBACCO. 



smaller extent near Metz and Thionville. The aggregate 

 area of land cultivated in 1871 in both provinces is given 

 at 3159 hectares, upon which 115,518 centners of tobacco 

 were raised. According to the statistics and information 

 furnished by Consul Ward, the quantity of tobacco pro- 

 duced in Germany in the year 1871 amounted to 713,845 

 centners, the whole being estimated in value at 60,284,210 

 dols., or about 9,042,6 131 sterling. 



A Consular report of March 31, 1885, remarks that one 

 of the most prominent branches of agriculture in Baden is 

 that of tobacco, of which about 300,000 to 350,000 cwt. 

 annually are grown, whereof large quantities are exported. 

 Owing to the comparatively high tax on production of 

 22J marks per 50 kilo., the grower has been forced to 

 seek a more rational system of cultivation, and a more 

 careful treatment of the plant and the curing of the leaf. 

 Government pays particular attention to this culture. A 

 Commission has been appointed for the purpose of study- 

 ing and investigating the treatment of tobacco in Holland, 

 and the results are to be adopted and propagated, so far 

 as the climate admits. 



It is very doubtful whether the labours of the Commis- 

 sion will greatly influence the farmers, who are of a very 

 conservative disposition; moreover, there is a greater 

 obstacle to struggle against, namely, their desire to 

 increase the quantity of the production, and with it their 

 income, without regard to the question of deterioration of 

 the quality of tobacco ; the peasantry, like other classes, 

 participates in the desire to better its material condition. 



The surface of land occupied by tobacco plantations re- 

 presented in 1883 for the whole of the empire the con- 



