32 'tobacco growing in great IJRITAIN. 



" In this district (Ryedale) it did not excite 

 the notice of legal authority. In the richer parts 

 of the vale, where the greatest quantity was 

 raised, it was cured and manufactured by a man 

 who had formerly been employed upon the 

 tobacco plantations in America, and who not 

 only cured it properly, but gave it the pi-oper 

 cut, and finally prepared it for the pipe. 



" But in the Vale of York the cultivators of it 

 met with less favourable circumstances ; their 

 tobacco was publicly burnt, and themselves 

 severely fined and imprisoned. Penalties, it was 

 said, were laid, to the amount of thirty thou- 

 sand pounds. This was enough to put a stop 

 to the illegal cultivation of tobacco .... I will 

 . . . just mention such circumstances respecting 

 its cultivation in this neighbourhood as I collected 

 in the autumn of 1782. I had not the oppor- 

 tunity of seeing the plants on the ground. 



" The .species was, probably, Nicotiana Rustica, 

 the English tobacco, so called from the circum- 

 stance of its being the first species cultivated in 

 England. 



" The seeds were pi'ocured at the seed-shops, 

 and handed about from one cultivator to another. 



" The seed-bed as rich and fine as possible. 



" The time of sowing, as soon as the weather 



