CHAPTER X. 



THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY AND SMOKING PIPES. 



THE various kinds of tobacco and the sources of supply are 

 exceedingly numerous. Every country, indeed, has 

 attempted to cultivate the plant and reap a share of the 

 rich harvest it yields to the planter and to the government. 

 Special qualities, as of wine, belong to particular localities, 

 outside of which they cannot, by any skill or coaxing, be 

 raised. A puzzling example of nature's fickle moods in the 

 production of the plant was found a few years ago in 

 Sumatra, where on one side of a field a leaf was yielded 

 rich in all the qualities delicate smokers desire, and on the 

 other side, but a few yards off, a very inferior plant grew. 

 So far as an experienced cultivator could see the conditions 

 were alike : seed, soil, and culture and aspect were the 

 same. And as is the case with wines, the crops vary in 

 richness and delicacy of flavour with the seasons of their 

 growth, so that in some years the yield is of much greater 

 value than in other years, though tobacco of the ' Comet 

 year' has not yet been proclaimed in commerce. The 

 natural properties of certain classes of tobacco render 

 them especially suited for cigar-making ; others are best 

 fitted for smoking in pipes, and there are numerous qualities 

 which are valuable for snuff-making. National tastes and 

 habits again frequently determine the destination of the 



