OUTLAY AND RETURNS 283 



good farmer to take up the crop with some chance of 

 success if he can be given access to a re-handler and 

 allowed a subsidy or rebate, which is really no more 

 than the equivalent of the extra trouble and expense 

 he is put to by the Excise authorities, for the crop has 

 to be grown in bond, as it were. Cigar and cigarette 

 tobacco demand more care and more expensive 

 methods of handling; it is experiments on these 

 special articles that have been so costly, like the 

 famous glass barn erected by Lord Dunraven, who has 

 been one of the most indefatigable supporters of the 

 movement. As we looked at the crops as they stood 

 and meantime tested last year's product, as we con- 

 sidered also the balance-sheets, we could hardly doubt 

 but that Sir Nugent Everard and his colleagues were on 

 the verge of commercial success. Year by year the 

 cost of production has been diminished and the value 

 of the crop increased, and considering how experience 

 alone can suggest economies and perfect methods of 

 cultivation, the successful termination of the venture 

 and the establishment of a permanent industry seem 

 now only a matter of the careful organization of the 

 re-handling process. Probably the crop in the British 

 Isles will never make big profits, its value will lie in 

 the fact that the proportion the gross return bears 

 to the rent is large, and when there is so much money 

 at stake the openings for skill are considerable. We 

 of all people ought to specialize on such expensive 

 crops as can be persuaded to flourish in our climate. 

 Moreover, out of the 22 or so per acre that tobacco 

 costs to grow in Ireland as much as 6, 145. is paid away 

 in wages, even at Irish rates of los. a week. It is 

 essentially the kind of crop for a small holder who can 

 handle plants individually, provided they are valuable ; 

 he and his children, for example, can harvest all those 

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