Brodigan's Treatise on the Tobacco Plant. 273 



his tobacco liquor, or sauce, he may grow a score or two of poppy plants, 

 collect the opium from them, and mix this with whisky, or spirit of any 

 kind, in which abundance of peach leaves, or a few leaves of iaurus nobi- 

 lis, or one or two of the common laurel, have been infused, adding water 

 and salt as directed above. A gardener, where there are hot-houses and 

 hot-house sheds, may dry and ferment in them ; and, indeed, with such 

 opportunities, and seeds of N. repandum, he ought to grow better tobacco 

 than any person whatever, not in Virginia or the West Indies. 



The produce, in America, is from 1000 to 1500 lbs. per acre; in the 

 county of Wexford, 1200 lbs.; and in Meath, Mr. Brodigan has had at the 

 rate of 1680 lbs. per English acre. In Virginia, the leaves of four plants, 

 each occupying a square yard, give a pound of tobacco. The money-cost 

 of production in Ireland, Mr. Brodigan estimates at 18/. per acre, where 

 the land is prepared by horse-labour ; and 30/. where it is prepared by 

 manual labour. The produce, at 16/. 8s. per hogshead of 1350 lbs., barely 

 pays the expense of horse-labour. 



The value of tobacco, as an agricultural crop, is much diminished from 

 the circumstance of its producing no manure. The farmers of Virginia, as 

 Jefferson predicted, have now ascertained that it is better to raise wheat, at 

 1 dollar per bushel, than tobacco at 8 dollars per cwt. As a source of la- 

 bour, Mr. Brodigan thinks the culture of tobacco a desirable employment 

 for the rural population of Ireland. Its great advantage is, that it affords 

 employment for those intervals when the labouring poor are at present 

 destitute of occupation. " The cultivation of a potato crop is of vital im- 

 portance to the Irish peasant ; but, as soon as that crop is planted, there is 

 a long interval of idleness and distress. The stock of potatoes is then gene- 

 rally exhausted, or unfit for use, and the summer months are the most 

 pinching times with the poor. The planting of tobacco may be said to com- 

 mence when the other is finished, and the field management occupies the 

 interval until the corn harvest. Again, between the corn harvest and the 

 taking up of the potatoes there is another interval of idleness, and that is 

 occupied in the curing of the tobacco." (p. 178.) As a cleaning crop, and 

 a preparation for wheat, the tobacco must be about equal to the potato. 

 The nourishment it abstracts from the soil must also be of the same general 

 nature, since both plants belong to the same natural order, iSblanese. 



The great and laudable object of Mr. Brodigan is to induce government 

 to permit the cultivation of tobacco in Ireland, at a moderate duty ; and we 

 hope he will attain his end. The restrictive system will probably, at no 

 distant time, be removed from tobacco and from every other crop : but 

 that tobacco ever will enter into the general course of crops of the British 

 farmer we do not think likely ; because, when trade in this, as in every thing 

 else, is once made free, the tobacco of warmer climates will unquestionably 

 be preferred to that of the British Isles. At present, there are a number of 

 gentlemen in the House of Commons who use tobacco ; but, should its use 

 become unfashionable among the higher classes, we should not be surprised 

 to see an attempt made to lay such a tax on the foreign commodity as 

 would give the landed interest a monopoly of an inferior article, which 

 would thus be forced by the rich on the poor. This would only be the 

 operation of the same principle which produced the removal of the beer 

 tax, in order to raise the price of barley, and please the poor at the same 

 time. We trust, however, to the growing political sense of the country, to 

 the force of opinion, in short, to the press, to avert such an evil. In the 

 mean time, we ardently desire to see the culture of tobacco permitted, and 

 successfully attempted, in Ireland, in order to aid in employing the popula- 

 tion of that country ; and we should wish, also, to see every cottager in the 

 three kingdoms growing his half rod, which the law permits, and which, at 

 a moderate calculation, ought to produce 4* lbs. of tobacco for his own 

 smoking or snuff, or for selling to his neighbours. 



Vol. VI. — No. 26. t 



