44 TOBACCO : ITS HISTORY. 



are accomplished notwithstanding. The ultimate 

 particles — the mineral constituents of plants — 

 can never be destroyed ; and whatever we do with 

 them, or wherever they happen to rest at last, after 

 their endless transmigration through the blood 

 and bones of animals, nature garners them up to 

 renew a subsequent vegetation.* They belong to 

 that class of bodies which are at once most neces- 

 sary to vegetation and least abundant, for the 

 reason above stated, even in fertile soils. Exactly 

 then in proportion to the weight of leaves gathered 

 must have been the weight of those substances 

 withdrawn from the soil. Now, every ton of per- 

 fectly dry leaves of tobacco carries off 400 to 

 500 cwt. of this composite mineral matter ! What 

 a valuable waste, then, it is to throw away the 

 ashes of our tobacco ! One pound of this ash will 

 supply four pounds of tobacco ; it has, conse- 

 quently, a most appreciable value, and it would 

 decidedly pay if depots were established for the 

 purchase of the ash of our pipes and cigars, were 

 it only to give pin-money to our indulgent wives 



* For valuable agricultural hints on this subject, see 

 Liebig's ' Letters on Chemistry,' i,, Letter xvi. 



