WHY IT SHOULD BE GROWN. O 



which were enacted under Charles II. and 

 George III., forbidding the home growth of 

 tobacco. 



The Act of Charles II. was passed when, 

 according to Guthrie, Virginia and Maryland 

 jointly shipped to England an annual average 

 of 96,000 hogsheads, valued at £768,000. Of 

 this, 13,500 hogsheads we re-exported to the 

 other countries of Europe, the total value re- 

 turning to England, while our colonies were 

 benefited and their trade encouraged. 



I^ow that these colonies no longer belong to 

 England, tlie original reason for the restrictive 

 laws has vanished, as the annual thousands 

 which, before their independence, passed and 

 repassed between them and us, in the cultivation 

 and preparation of this article, now leave Eng- 

 land once for all, to pass into the hands and 

 encourage the trade of foreigners. The sum 

 which actually left us in payment for foreign 

 tobacco in the year 1884 amounted to £3,715,812, 

 the quantity imported being 56,695,743 lbs. 



The second great reason for maintaining the 

 prohibitive Acts was the extraordinary revenue 

 to be derived by the Government by the easy 

 method of forbidding home production and 

 heavily taxing the foreign. In 1831, when the 

 last Act respecting tobacco was passed, the 



