TOBACCO. 301 



reason first given by a physician, and then in a sober and private manner." We 

 can't undertake to say how it is at Harvard University now, under the Presidency 

 of a gentleman so distinguished for scholarship and courtly manners, but we. ap- 

 prehend, for that matter, that in many of our institutions, the justification of the 

 student might be found in the example both of the LL. D.'s and the M. D.'s 

 among their elders. 



On the other hand, this exciting weed has not failed in advocates among the 

 literati, some of whom have hymned its praises in various forms and languages; 

 for as Mr. Jefferson extolled the oil of olives as " the next best gift of God to 

 man after bread,'''' the pious author of a Latin " Hymn to Tobacco," styles it " the 

 gift of Heaven and the ornament of the earth." Hence is here submitted a pic- 

 ture of this ornament of the earth, to the judgment of the reader, who in making 

 it up will please remember to drop the worm ! By-the-by, it ought to be explained 

 that his wormship is never caught, as here exposed, reposing on the toj) leaf ; but 

 there was not room to display an entire plant, and to place the beautiful object 

 where he delights to " revel," that is, on the most delicate and richest parts of 

 the prime leaves below, eschewing the coarsest and greenest portions of the leaf 

 and stems, while his fell destroyer, Man, (not the turkey,) with less delicacy of 

 discrimination, eschews none, but chews all the manufacturer gives him, with 

 some not very nice additions, such as copperas, &c. 



The narcotic properties of tobacco, to which it owes its fascinating powers, 

 remind us not only of the " Confessions of the Opium-Eater," but of the effect 

 also of the " Je<e/-rooi," and another substance called " churrus," of the East 

 Indies, where both are freely used, both as medicines and as opiates, having the 

 power to beguile the imagination with the most delightful reveries. The simi- 

 larity in the medical properties with those of tobacco, even suggest, if our plant- 

 ing friends will excuse the intimation, whether these Asiatic drugs may not at 

 some future day, as yet it is to be hoped deeply wrapped in the womb of Time, 

 be made to take the place of our great staple. Would it not, in a word, be more 

 lamentable than strange, were the starveling natives of the East (called free) to 

 supply, in the process of time, substitutes for two of the great products of the 

 planting States, one entirely and the other in a great measure the product of 

 Slave Labor — a labor with us so much better provided and more kindly cared for 

 than any laboring class in Europe'^ 



The churrus, above alluded to, is an extract from hemp, the Cannabis Indica. 

 If what is said of the betel-nut be true, it ought certainly to be introduced into 

 the veterinary practice of our country, than which practice nothing, no art, cer- 

 tainly, can well be in a lower or more rude and unsatisfactory state. 



We might here introduce, were it only for the reason last stated, a more ex- 

 tended notice to illustrate their similarity, in effects, to the narcotic of which we 

 are treating, but that ii would swell this article to an immoderate length, and 

 so we shall assign it, if we can, another and contiguous position — contenting our- 

 selves here with this reference to it as a matter that may repay the attention of 

 the curious reader. But again to the subject in hand. 



It will be time enough hereafter to speak of all that concerns the cultivation 

 and management of tobacco, except as to the preparation of the seed and seed 

 beds. On these points we turn with interesting recollections to the time and the 

 relations of intimate friendship which enabled us to draw, twenty-seven years 

 ago, from one whose retiring disposition was only surpassed by his merit and 

 capacity, " Motes on the Cultivation and Management of Tobacco, from the 



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