Foreign Notices : — Australia. 327 



The Tobacco Plants of Colombia are : — The Cumanacoa, Tobacco de la 

 Cueva, de las Misones, de la Laguna de Valencia cura seca and Caraco, de 

 la Laguna de Valencia cura negra, de Oriluca, de Varinas cura seca, de 

 Casavare, de Bayladores, de Rio Negro en Andullas equal to the tobacco of 

 the Brazils. The tobacco of the Cueva, in the department of Cumana, is 

 said to be a tobacco growing from the excrement of certain birds that depo- 

 sit them in a cavity, and from which the natives extract it: it is considered 

 the finest tobacco in Colombia. The birds are a species of the owl. The 

 natives of Varinas, and through the whole kingdom, chew a substance 

 called chimo, which is made of a jelly, by boiling the Varinas tobacco, and 

 afterwards mixed with an alkali called hurado, which is found in a lake near 

 Merida. Both are an estanco of government, and produce a large annual 

 income. The mode of cultivating the above tobacco by the natives is as 

 follows : — They prepare a small bed, sifting the earth very fine, on which 

 they sow their seed, and then cover it with plantain leaves for some days. As 

 soon as the plants make their appearance, they raise the leaves about 2 ft., 

 so as to give the plants free air, and to allow them sooner to grow strong. 

 When they become large enough to plant, they have the land prepared ; 

 and, as soon as the rainy season sets in, they plant out their young plants, 

 taking great care to protect them from the sun, and to keep them clean as 

 they grow up, as well as to prevent the worms from destroying or eating 

 the leaves. When the leaf is ripe, it gets yellow spots on it ; and, on bend- 

 ing the leaf, it cracks. Then it is fit for pulling off, which is done, and the 

 leaves are neatly packed in handfuls, placed in a dry situation, and occa- 

 sionally shifted from one place to another. When the leaves are well dried, 

 they are all paeked closely, and well covered, to keep the flavour in. The 

 leaf is left in this state for one or two months, and then made up for use. 

 They never top their tobacco, and the leaves never ripen together. The 

 mode adopted by the North American planters is somewhat cuffereiit : they 

 top their plants when they have attained eight full leaves, or they keep it 

 secured j and, by this means, the leaves are large and sappy. They cut off 

 the stem at the ground, when ripe, and hang it on laths for one day and a 

 night, with the leaves all hanging down ; they then place it in then- barns j 

 and, when these are quite full, they smoke it for some days, and let it re- 

 main in that way until the stem, as well as the leaf, is quite dry ; they 

 then put it in a heap, and cover it up for market. They strip off the leaves, 

 and pack them in hogsheads, as it is received hi London. — D. Fanning, 

 London, Dec. 1829. 



AUSTRALIA. 



The Agricultural and Horticultural Society of New South Wales. — The 

 address for 1829, by its president, Sir John Jamieson, has just been received 

 in London. " The account given in it of the state and progress of agricul- 

 ture in the colony is highly favourable. It appears, from this address, that 

 the culture of the tobacco plant has answered every expectation : 30 tons, 

 of it, as much or more than all the settlers have grown in any former year, 

 have been produced by five estates alone. There is, therefore, a prospect 

 that, in a few years, shiploads of the leaf may be despatched to England for 

 manufacture, provided the British markets afford a remunerating price. A 

 skilful planter is reviving the growth of the sugar-cane on the river Man- 

 ning. The growth of the opium poppy is more exuberant than in many 

 other countries ; and the quality of the opium made from it invites its 

 more general cultivation. It is but a few years since the olive tree was in- 

 troduced in the colony ; and the rapidity of its growth, together with its 

 excessive fruitfulness, shows that the soil and climate are particularly 

 favourable to it. Every year's experience tends to the belief that the vine 

 will one day become an important plant in the colony. The variety of the 

 European grapes, and the perfection which they attain, hold out a promise 



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