TOBACCO CULTURE IN AUSTRALIA. 859 
bounds of the place. The old Dutch planters were fond of a 
“silent pipe,” and after the labors of the day gathered 
together to drink and smoke to the success of Admiral Von 
Tromp, whose exploits in the British Channel carried terror 
to many a heart. Or, speculated upon the voyage of the 
“ Goede Vroww” (Good Woman), which had been fitted out 
to colonize the new country. 
The progress of tobacco-culture in Oceanica, is shown in 
the following account which Connor gives of the tobacco 
plantations of Australia : 
“The development of tobacco culture in Australia has been 
great and rapid. In these colonies, where only a few years 
ago the plant was not known, there are now hundreds of 
acres under tobacco. The local manufacture is also keeping 
pace with the production of the leaf, and the import of 
tobacco into the Australian colonies yearly diminishes in 
proportion to the increased consumption of locally grown 
and manufactured tobacco. Imported leaf is used in the 
manufacture of cigars, those made from colonial leaf being 
held in low esteem. Steady efforts are being made by the 
cultivators to improve the quality of the produce, and with 
every prospect of success, many places in the colonies being 
well adapted for the growth of the plant. Colonel De Coin 
says Australia is capable of producing very good qualities. 
Tobacco has hitherto been grown upon alluvial lands, but a 
preference is evinced for lands somewhat less rich but free 
from floods. Alluvial land gives a larger crop per acre, but 
the flavor is ranker. In 1872 there were 567 acres under 
tobacco in New South Wales. The average produce of the 
colonies is about 1,300 pounds to the acre. The amount of 
roduce varied from 976 pounds to the acre in New South 
Wales to 2,016 in Tasmania, the climate of this island being 
moister and more favorable for tobacco than that of the other 
colonies. Manilla and Havana tobacco has been grown with 
great success for seed for many years at the Adelaide Botanic 
Gardens, and the seed raised has been largely distributed.” 
The Australian growers may demonstrate the fact that as 
good or better Manilla tobacco can be grown by them than in 
the Philippine islands. If the leaf will burn freely, and 
leave a white, firm ash, the product will no doubt prove a 
rival of the leaf grown in Luzon. From the composition of 
