TOBACCO. 



299 



cessary to bring forward early plants, in the garden as well as elsewhere. In re- 

 lation to the fly that attacks the plant in the bed, and which, with Mr. Bowie, 

 we suppose to be the same as the turnip fly, we do not know that it will be ia 

 our power to say anything useful, but what we can say, shall appear in the Feb- 

 ruary number — in time fur any defence that can be made against it. This vora- 

 cious and active little insect is estimated to have destroyed half a million of doU 

 lars' ivorth of turnips, in a single county of England, in one year. 



Volumes have been written, pro and con, on the use and abuses of this very 

 remarkable plant— remarkable alike in its history, its uses and its commercial 

 relations— and especially in its serpent-like power to fascinate and overcome by 

 its chains, of an indefinable sort, the disgust it is in most respects so well fitted 

 to inspire. As we have anticipated by a month or more the season for sowing 

 the seed, we may indulge here in some remarks relating to its original habitat 

 and its chemical and medicinal properties, intending in subsequent numbers, and 

 in good season, to present it in all the practical views connected with its cultiva- 

 tion and commercial value— not for the benefit of our friends in the old " Planta- 

 tion Stales," who know it all " like a book," but because it may interest some 

 who propose to embark in its cullurc, and yet more for the reason that in The 

 Farmers' Library it is proper that the American cultivator should fifid, ready at 

 his hands, memoirs, as full as need be, in regard to every important branch of 

 Rural Industry. 



De gustibus 7ion disjmtandum—'m plain English, there is no disputing about 

 tastes ; and though many of our readers may forego, and even abhor the use of 

 tobacco in every form, the consumption of this delectable weed has nevertheless 

 spread into all parts of the world ; nor is there any, where the taste for it is so 

 licentiously indulged as in our own, if we may believe the half that is written 

 to stigmatize our habits, on this point, by travelers, male and female, who come 

 Trolloping over our country, to seek what blemishes they may descry — and, 

 alas ! let us confess, aside, descrying but too many. To quote our own language 

 twenty-seven years ago — 



lation Nicotiana applied to this genus of 

 plants. The iutrodaction of the custom of 

 smoking it in England has beeu ascribed to 

 Sir Waiter Raleigh. 



" We are told that some tribes of the abo- 

 riginal inhabitants of this continent used to- 

 bacco as a burnt offering, the smoke of which 

 they supposed to be acceptable to the gods. 

 Thus we find that different nations address 

 themselves to different senses as the me- 

 dium for obtaining divine conciliation. Wliil© 

 the pious Christian seeks propitiation by vo- 

 cal or instrumental music, or a concert of 

 both, the poor untutored savage implores fa- 



" In the whole Vegetable Kingdom, per- 

 haps, no plant can be found, the propagation 

 and effects of which have attracted as much 

 notice, and produced so much excitement as 

 this disgusting — some would say, fascinating 

 weed. It has been alike the theme of poet- 

 ical eulogy and the object of secular and po- 

 litical proscription. Popes have let loose 

 their roaring bulls, and Kings have issued 

 their decrees against it, and well would it be 

 if Church and State would form Eilliance only 

 on such occasions- 



" Like some other nai'cotic poisons, how- 

 ever, tobacco has made its way against the , ^ 



denunciations of all its enemies, and becomes vor and happiness through the incense of 

 more dear and indispensable to those who aromatic gums and the odor of sweet-scented 

 use it in the ratio of its injury to their consti- tobacco. 



tutions. 



" Tobacco is a native of tliis country, and 

 wa.s first imported into Europe about the 

 middle of the sixteenth century by Hernan- 

 dez de Toledo, who sent it into Spain and 

 Portugal. The Embassador of Francis II. at 

 tiie court of Lisbon, carried it into France in 

 1560, when it was presented to Catharine do 

 M(!dicis, as a plant of extraordinary virtues 

 from the New World. The Embaasador's 



It is remarkable, says a learned author, 

 that in the days of its first general introduc- 

 tion into Europe no man spoke about it with 

 coolness or indifference, but every one warmly 

 espoused its censure or its praise. Camden, 

 in his Life of Queen Elizabeth, says that 

 ' men used tobacco everywhere, some for 

 wantonness and some for health's sake, and 

 that with insatiable desire and gi'eediness, 

 they sucked tho stinking smoke thereof 



oame was Nicot, hence tlie botanical appel- I through an earthen pipe, which they prea- 

 (619) 



