MANUFACTURE. 43 



huge kiln, called " the Queen," at the Docks ; 

 by which it is reduced to ashes. What is done 

 with this tobacco-ash I do not know ; but it is 

 decidedly a valuable commodity, and should be 

 shipped back to the tobacco-plantations as an 

 almost priceless manure. The leaves of all 

 plants are especially rich in incombustible ash, 

 and those of tobacco are amongst the richest in 

 this respect. The dried leaf when burnt yields 

 from 19 to 28 per cent, of ash ; on an average, 

 every 4 lbs. of perfectly dry tobacco contain 

 1 lb. of mineral matter — the same that forms the 

 ashes of our pipes and the nozzles of our burning 

 cigars. It is important to give a little consider- 

 ation to this subject, and I invite attention to the 

 following hints. 



Tobacco is an "exhausting crop;" in other 

 words, it is found to impoverish the soil more 

 rapidly than other vegetables. It is in the ashes 

 of plants that we find wdiat they took from the 

 soil, and it is certain that no plant will thrive 

 unless the soil contains the elements of its ashes. 

 Practically, this simple law of nature has been 

 universally ignored ; but the operations of nature 



