Book VI. TOBACCO. 939 



The surface is laid out into beds or ridglets two feet and a half wide, with alleys between of nine inches 

 or a foot. The beds are raised two feet above the alleys, and are composed of alternate layers of rich soil 

 and dung rotten almost to mould. The direction of the bed is north and south, and on each two rows of 

 plants are inserted at eighteen inches' distance between the rows, and at the same between plant and plant ■ 

 the plants of one row alternating with the interstices of the others. The summer culture is the same as 

 in Virginia, but the gathering of the crop is differently performed. When the leaves have shown the 

 usual symptoms of maturity, the lowest, or those of the third quality, and the middle leaves, or those of 

 the second quality, are stripped oft' and kept separate, and from four to six at top left on for some time 

 longer. The leaves stripped off are separately dried, and in the mean time the plants watched, and every 

 sucker or bud which makes its appearance pinched ofK The top leaves, or those of the first quality, are 

 gathered when ready ; and all the remaining parts of the process with the three qualities is exactly the same 

 as in Virginia. {Ibid.) 



6138. Culture in Alsatia, and generally in the north and west of France and south of Germany. The 

 seed, chiefly of N. Tabncum, is sown in March, or even earlier, in beds of fine mould in a garden, covered 

 at night, and till it comes up, during day also, with straw mats. When it begins to come up, these are 

 removed by nine o'clock in the morning, and put on again when the sun goes down. After the plants 

 have produced their seed leaves, the straw mats are supported by hoops or rods, so as not to injure the 

 plants. About the end of April, the plants will be found to have attained from two to four leaves, ex- 

 clusive of their seed leaves; and from this time to the middle of June is considered the season for trans- 

 planting them into the fields. The best crops, other circumstances the same, are obtained from plants 

 transplanted before the middle of May. Both in Holland and Alsatia, sheep's dung is found the best 

 manure for the tobacco. The ground is made as fine as possible, not laid into ridges unless wet, and the 

 plants are planted in rows, generally two feet and a half apart, and the plants alternating at the same dis- 

 tance in the row. Much of the value of the crop depends on the dryness and warmth of the summer, a 

 good wine year being invariably a good tobacco year. In cold wet seasons many of the lower leaves be- 

 come rusty or spotted ; and though these do not always appear before the second fermentation, yet they 

 ultimately become obvious by changing into holes after the last drying; their inferiority then becomes 

 obvious to the purchaser. The top leaves alone are those used for manufacturing into snuff', and they 

 bring much the highest price. These leaves generally remain on the plant till the twentieth of August; 

 but the lower leaves are commonly gathered by the fifteenth of July. The tops of the plants are not 

 generally pinched off till about the beginning of August, and they continue gathering leaves from that 

 time till they are interrupted by white frost. Every eight days after the operation of topping, the side 

 buds are pinched off! After the leaves are gathered, they are tied on the spot in bundles according to 

 their qualities ; and when they are taken to the drying' shed, they are again separated and picked, and all 

 those of one quality threaded together on lines, leaving a space about the width of a finger between each 

 leaf. The lines thus charged with leaves are stretched from one side to the other of the drying shed, or 

 lengthwise under the eaves of cottage roofs, which are made to project from one foot to three feet for the 

 purpose of drying tobacco and maize. The more extensive growers have large sheds or barns on purpose, 

 and these are always constructed with openings on all sides, so as to admit of the most perfect ventilation. 

 When the air does not circulate freely among the leaves, instead of drying yellow they dry green or 

 black, lose their grateful odour, and the midribs become rotten, and the whole leaf falls to pieces. 

 Leaves which on the plant were most exposed to the sun and dews, such as the top leaves, always dry to 

 the finest yellows. The leaves remain in the drying sheds till the weather has become decidedly cold in 

 November or December, though some of the leaves of inferior qualities are frequently purchased for the 

 manufacture of smoking tobacco in the month of October. But these must be immediately manufactured, 

 otherwise when lying together they contract a bad smell. The threads of leaves being ready to take 

 down, the leaves are not taken off the threads, but they are laid down in a humid mild day on a dry airy 

 floor, one above another to the depth of from fourteen inches to half a foot Here they lie for some 

 time, being examined occasionally to see that they are not heating ; if they heat, they are immediately 

 hung up again ; if they do not, they remain in that position till wanted by the manufacturer. Often, 

 indeed, they are manufactured as soon as properly dried on the strings. {Ibid.) 



6139. The culture of tobacco in the south of France is not materially different from what it is on the 

 south banks of the Rhine. The tobacco of the south of France is naturally of a better quality ; but the 

 care taken of it by the cultivators, especially in the drying and fermenting, being less than in less favour- 

 able climates, the quality becomes reduced, so that the tobacco of Alsace is preferred to that of Garonne. 

 The plants are cut over with all their leaves on as in Virginia, and they are hung up to dry in pairs across 

 strings or beams. Being thoroughly dried, the leaves are separated, tied up in hands, and laid in heaps to 

 ferment. These heaps are placed on boarded floors raised three or four inches above the surface of the 

 soil; they are made two feet broad and two feet high, the width requiring exactly two hands, half of the 

 one hand overlapping half of the other, and the ends or footstalks of the leaves of both being outwards. 

 This operation is commonly performed between the fifteenth of November and the fifteenth of January, 

 and the tobacco remains in that state till it is purchased by the manufacturer. The manufacturer having 

 agreed for the price, makes up the hands into round balls of three or four hundred pounds weight ; takes 

 these home, unrolls them, separates the leaves, classes them according to their qualities, and finally puts 

 them in hogsheads, packing them closely by means of presses. In these hogsheads the tobacco remains 

 till taken out to be made into snuff, cigars, or common smoking tobacco. 



6140. The culture of tobacco in Ireland, as practised by Brodigan in Meath, is thus given. Hotbeds like 

 those made for cucumbers are to be prepared in March, and the seeds, Mr. Brodigan does not seem to have 

 known what species he cultivated, sown any time from the fifteenth of that mouth to the first of April. 

 In the beginning of May the plants may be hardened by exposure to the air, and by the fifteenth or twen- 

 tieth of that month they may be transplanted into the open field without injury. Forty thousand plants fit 

 for transplanting may be raised on an area of one hundred square feet According to Carver, a square 

 yard will rear about five hundred plants, and allow proper space for their nurture till they are fit for 

 transplanting. The field was prepared in every respect the same as for turnips; the drills or ridglets 

 were eighteen inches apart, and the manure, of which a good supply was given, buried in the centre of 

 each ridglet The plants were put in with spades, at eighteen inches apart, along the centre of the 

 ridglet, and afterwards watered. " The planters were followed by women, with their aprons full of long 

 grass, with which they covered each plant, and confined it by placing a stone or lump of earth at both 

 ends ; this covering is indispensable, unless the weather prove wet and cloudy. Such is the extreme deli- 

 cacy of the plant, that it will not bear the heat of the sun, until it has so far set in the soil as to be able to 

 supply the loss by evaporation. This will not be for some days, during which time the cover cannot be 

 safely removed, and watering, to the extent of a pint a plant, may be daily used. Some of the respectable 

 planters in the county of Wexford have used pots as a covering for the plants, of which some thousands 

 will be necessary. Others have used large oyster shells, cabbage, or dock leaves. I tried all these methods, 

 and experience has satisfied me that the mode 1 practised has decided advantages. It protects the plant 

 sufficiently against the sun, and the water passes freely through it : whereas where pots or leaves are used, 

 they must be removed to admit water, and in case of rain the plants receive little or no benefit from it 

 The operation of planting may be continued until the twentieth of June, but the earlier the better after 

 the frosts have passed away. In America and France, I found, that four months were generally considered 

 as necessary for the nutrition of the plants ; and that time in this climate cannot be allowed, unless they 

 are put down early." (p. 16C.) 



6141. The summer management of tobacco, by Mr. Brodigan, consisted in loosening the soil about the 

 plants, removing the weeds, watering " for weeks together," taking off the decayed leaves at bottom, top. 

 ping when the plant has from nine to fourteen good leaves, and removing the side buds as they appear. 



