174 FORESTRY OF WEST AFRICA. 



encouraged in its infancy by the Spanish Government 

 by the promise of the purchase of the tobacco grown 

 in those islands. Prospects held out do not seem to 

 have been realised to the extent anticipated, and 

 hopes are now entertained of the increase and im- 

 provement of the industry by the purchase locally in 

 green state of the crops. On the subject Vice-Consul 

 Miller wrote on the Trade and Commerce in 1881 of 

 Los Palmas : — 



" Tobacco is another product which is progressing 

 Tjy slow degrees, and the quality is gradually im- 

 proving." The best way to increase the culture of this 

 .article, observes Mr. Miller, is to buy it in its green 

 ■state from the growers, so that the small producers 

 who cannot afford to wait the time required for its 

 preparedness may thus have an opportunity of con- 

 verting it into cash as soon as they cut the leaf, for 

 which purpose a drying-house is being constructed. 



A tobacco industry, in an unmanufactured and 

 a manufactured sense, proceeds somewhat in Fernando 

 Po, where seed has been imported from the Canaries, 

 and has been found to answer. Twisted tobacco is 

 -there prepared by those who have been transported 

 from Cuba. The want of proper drying-houses seems 

 there also to be felt. 



In Bentley and Trimen, 'Medicinal Plants,' p. 191, 

 vol. iii., it will be found stated of the habitat of the 

 Nicotiaiia tabacum : — " There is no doubt that the 

 tobacco is a native of some part of South or Central 



