330 Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



contain a fair proportion of lime and potash, or should be enriched 

 with a calcareous manure and ashes, or with well decomposed stable- 

 manure. According to Simmonds the average yield in Greece, where 

 the clime is similar to ours, is about 800 pounds of tobacco per acre. 

 In Norway Tobacco has been grown as far north as 70 22' [Schue- 

 beler]. The equable mild clime of Northern New Zealand proved 

 particularly well suited for producing superior tobacco. For Queens- 

 land experiences refer to S. Lamb's remarks in the " Bulletin of the 

 Departure for Agriculture," Brisbane, No. 6 (1890). With us in 

 Victoria the lowlands of Eastern G-ippsland would be sure to contain 

 all the natural conditions for successful tobacco-culture. Nicotiana- 

 seeds may rest underground for half-a-dozen years without impair- 

 ment of their germination power [Dr. W. O. Fooke.] The seedlings, 

 two months or less old, are transplanted. When the plants are coming 

 into flower, the leading top-shoots are nipped off, and the lateral 

 shoots must also be broken off. A few weeks afterwards the leaves 

 will turn to a greenish yellow, which is a sign that the plants are fit 

 to be cut, or that the ripe leaves can gradually be pulled. In the 

 former case the stems are split ; the drying is then effected in barns 

 by suspension from sticks across beams. The drying process occupies 

 four or five weeks, and may need to be assisted by artificial heat. 

 Stripped of the stalks, the leaf-blades are tied into bundles, to 

 undergo sweating or a kind of slight fermentation. It does not 

 answer to continue tobacco-culture beyond two years on the same soil 

 uninterruptedly. The Shiraz-tobacco is a variety cultivated in Persia 

 [Sir Jos. Hooker; see also Dyer's "Kew-Bulletin," April, 1891]. 

 This can be brought to perfection only in cool mountain-regions. The 

 mode of culture is somewhat different from that of the ordinary 

 tobacco. Moderate irrigation is favorable. The plants, when ripe, 

 are cut off and stuck into the ground again until they become yellow ; 

 they are then heaped together for a few days in the drying-house ; 

 they are afterwards stacked into thin strata, and placed into bags for 

 pressure and daily turning. Another prominent variety is Nicotiana 

 latissima (Miller), or N. macrophylla (Lehmann), yielding largely 

 the Chinese, the Orinoco- and the Maryland-tobacco. Latakia- 

 tobacco, according to Dyer, is prepared by. submitting the leaves for 

 several months to fumigation from fir-wood. Substances containing 

 cumarin, particularly the Tonca-Bean (Dipterix odorata), are used to 

 flavor tobacco and snuff. The dangerously powerful nicotin (a 

 volatile acrid alkaline oily liquid) and nicotianin (a bitter aromatic 

 lamellar substance) are both derived from tobacco in all its parts, and 

 are therapeutic agents requiring to be used with the utmost caution ; 

 nicotine is also largely contained in the fluid remaining in pipes. It 

 is well known also as a powerful insecticide. Nicotine from the 

 Australian N. suaveolens has a gradually and permanently blinding 

 effect on horses feeding on this plant [Kendall], The total quantity 

 of tobacco, manufactured and unmanufactured, imported into the 

 United Kingdom in 1889 amounted to about 79,000,000 Ibs., valued 

 at 3,890,000, yielding a Customs revenue of 8,858,000. The 



