lOO The Soverane Herbe 



preceding two, with oblong stem leaves and a white 

 flower. It is popular with English gardeners, but its 

 smoking use is confined to Persia, its flavour being 

 too mild for all but the Oriental palate. The tobacco 

 prepared from it is known as Shiraz, the place of its 

 chief culture. 



For his inspiration the smoker practically depends 

 upon the Nicotiana Tabacum, the other two varieties 

 supplying only a very small proportion of the world's 

 tobacco. 



Though a perennial plant, tobacco is grown annually 

 from seed. It flourishes best in a rich, deep, moist 

 soil and a temperate climate, between 40° and 50° 

 latitude. Though naturally a tropical plant, tobacco 

 acclimatises itself in any country, but that grown 

 in its native tropics yields, of course, the best crop, 

 the leaf deteriorating the farther north it is grown. 

 It is estimated that nearly two million acres of the 

 earth's surface are devoted to tobacco culture. 



The cultivation of tobacco is a matter of great 

 care, requiring constant and experienced attention. 

 The rich, moist soil is exhausted of its mineral con- 

 stituents by the plant in a remarkable degree, more 

 so, in fact, than by any other plant. It is these 

 minerals which form the ash of burning tobacco. On 

 an average four pounds of smoked tobacco yield one 

 pound of ash or mineral matter. Tobacco absorbs 

 from the soil even the chlorine of common salt, which 

 it not only does not require, but which actually spoils 

 the tobacco for smoking. 



Careful manuring of the ground and alternation of 

 crops is therefore necessary, as a single crop of tobacco 



