CHAPTER XIII. 
TOBACCO CULTURE. 
in tS 
\ ‘ab OBACCO at the present time is one of the great 
<i products of the world. As an article of agriculture 
‘e and of commerce, it holds an important place among 
* the great staples, while as a luxury, its use has 
become as extensive as its culture. The tobacco plant is now 
cultivated in nearly all parts of the world with varying suc- 
cess, according to the system of cultivation adopted by its 
growers. Primarily cultivated by the aborigines of America 
in the rude manner common to uncivilized races, the plant 
has, by numerous experiments and careful culture, become 
one of the greatest of agricultural products. When first 
discovered by the Spanish and Portuguese, the plant was 
small, and in flavor “poor and weak and of a byting taste.” 
As soon, however, as the Spaniards began its cultivation in 
the islands of St. Domingo and Trinidad, attention was paid 
to developing it, and in a few years the description we find 
of the latter variety is that it is “large, sharp, and growing 
two or three yards from the ground.” 
At the close of the sixteenth century the Portuguese began 
its cultivation in Portugal, the soil of which seemed well 
adapted to the plant, and still further increased the size and 
quality of the leaf. Tobacco is now cultivated through. a 
wider range of temperature than any other tropical plant, 
and whether grown amid the sands of Arabia, the plains of 
South America, or in the rich valley of the Connecticut, 
develops its finest form and perfection of leaf. During the 
last half-century the plant ver been developed to a greater 
