4 THE TOBACCO PLANT. 



The tobacco plant would grow freely in Great 

 Britain, if government would allow its cultivation ; it 

 is now the policy to prohibit it, for the benefit of our 

 colonies, whose trade with the mother country would be 

 seriously damaged but for these restrictions. It was 

 at one time extensively cultivated in the North-riding 

 of Yorkshire ; but in the early part of the reign of 

 George III., penalties were inflicted on the growers, 

 to the amount of £30,000, and the tobacco publicly 

 burned. In Scotland it was also grown when our 

 colonial trade was interrupted by the American war. 

 About Kelso and Jedburgh a considerable tract of land 

 was devoted to this purpose, the Act of Charles II. 

 which made the growth illegal in England, of course 

 not affecting Scotland ; to meet which emergency the 

 Act of the 19th of George III. was passed, which pro- 

 hibits the cultivation of more than will occupy half a 

 rod of ground ; and which is to be used for medicinal 

 purposes, or the destruction of insects.* In Ireland 

 it was successfully grown, particularly in the county 

 of Wexford, some years after the restrictive law 

 just named was passed for England, and which, 

 curiously enough, repealed the similar laws for Ire- 

 land. Tobacco could therefore be grown at home with 

 us, as with other European nations ; if it were our 

 legal policy to permit it. Holland, which is in our 

 latitude, but colder and damper in its soil, carries on 



* It is frequently grown in the kitchen garden to destroy gruhs and 

 insects by its infusion in water, or to drive them from hothouses, by fumi- 

 gation with dried leaves. In both ways it is most effective. 



