164 TOBACCO. 



4827 cwt. of roll totacco, 14,170 cwt. of cigars, 8321 cwt. 

 of stems for snuffs, 513 cwt. of snuff, and 101 cwt. of 

 chewing-tobacco. The total area of land engaged in 

 growing the plant in 1878 was 18,016 hectares, or about 

 44,520 acres. Two-thirds of that quantity was grown in 

 Ehenish Bavaria, Baden, South Hesse, and Alsace-Lorraine, 

 in which districts 11,623 hectares were employed in the 

 cultivation of the plant. 



Great Britain. — The proposal to re-establish tobacco 

 culture in the United Kingdom has called for the following 

 sensible article in the Planters' Gazette. 



" The question of growing tobacco in the United 

 Kingdom is not so simple as patriotic Irishmen and 

 enthusiasts of acclimatization might think. Tobacco has 

 been classed, like tea and coffee, as among those necessaries 

 of life which could not be grown with any advantage in 

 the United Kingdom, and might therefore be freely taxed 

 for revenue purposes. It is, indeed, true that a passable 

 herb may be grown and called tobacco, in many parts of 

 the United Kingdom, but the fact has been generally re- 

 cognized that competition with more tropical countries is 

 practically fruitless, and therefore to be abandoned. It is 

 easily to be understood that so aromatic a crop, monopo- 

 lizing so many of the best and rarest qualities of the soil, 

 would require high manuring ; and that, just as is the 

 case of any other crop — such as hops, or even wheat — one 

 could get nothing of the special excellence of the herb 

 required but what one has previously put into the soil. 

 But, to be profitable, the plant requires good heat as well 

 as good soil. This, therefore, is the whole economical 

 question, and upon that the matter mainly hinges. The 



