TOBACCO. I.) 



weeds which only grow on rotten soils and 

 dunghills, such as fresh woodlands, and will 

 not thrive well on any others. It was, there- 

 fore, a proper plant to exhaust the abundant 

 vegetable manure that many parts of America 

 afforded, when first it began to be cultivated. 

 It is a tall herbaceous plant, growing erect 

 with a fine foliage, and rising with a strong 

 stem from six to nine feet high. The seeds 

 of this plant are extremely small ; but so nu- 

 merous that it has been calculated that a 

 single plant will produce about 350,000, each 

 capsule containing about a thousand ! It 

 thrives best in a warm, kindly, rich soil, light 

 and inclined to be sandy; it likes the southern 

 declivity of a hill. It thrives well in most 

 parts of Europe, and the writers of the six- 

 teenth century state, that it prospered in 

 England. Lord Bacon says, " Tobacco is a 

 thing of great price, if it be in request ; for 

 an acre of it will be worth, (as is affirmed) 

 two hundred pound by the year towards 

 charge." He adds, " The charge of making 

 the ground, and otherwise, is great, but no- 

 thing to the profit." 



Ministerial policy has prohibited its culti- 

 vation in this country, as well as in France. 

 It seems an extraordinary stretch of power 



