82 
TUNBAKU or TUMBAKU. 
Her Majesty’s Legation, Tehran, 
16th May 1890. 
The following interesting particulars with regard to the cultivation, 
&c. of the tunbaku plant. have been kindly. furnished by the Nawab 
Haider Ali Khan, British agent at Shiraz. A translation, as nearly as 
possible literal, of the original Persian of his communication is here 
given. Hakan and Lars, trom which the samples most in request b 
the higher class Pen itin both in theimmediate neighbourhood 
of Shiraz, from whence the Nawab promises to send in the autumn 
specimens of leaves, ть ad seed, with samples of the soil and 
water. On receipt of these I will forward them at once to Kew. 
append also an abstract of information the same subject afforded 
me by Mr. Wright, the English head бие of НЛ.Н. the Zil-é- 
Sulta: 
J. Hornsey Casson. 
[Enclosure I.] 
About the beginning of February the seed is sown broadcast on the 
ground, which is first ploughed and reploughed two or three times, and 
well manured, mixed animal manures and nightsoil being used for this 
purpose. Ridges, about a yard apart, are made, and the intervening 
furrows are flooded, and while the water still iti on the ground 
ground, which is then covered thickly over with camel-thorn as a 
protection principally against birds. When the plania i Кы to show 
above ground they m must be watered once a week, so that the ground 
remains slightly moist. Later the watering must be continued 
every second week until about the 10th of Apri when the thorn is 
removed. The ground is then weeded and bat and pigeon 
is scattered broadcast over it. About the commencement of May the 
transplantation into other ground is effected. Old fallow land should 
be selected ; two consecutive crops of good tunbaku cannot be pape 
The course "generally adopted is to plant ¢unbaku one year, wheat t 
following, and the third year the land is left fallow. The ground wem 
be 1 терю ughed four or five times and arran -— in ridges and furrows 
sight (8) splants are — d. in m sY water-line about 
OL 
h proc 
ess is repea the ебі Pes ier. an interval of two 
bees and again continued weekly until the plants attain the height 
of about one yard. The crowns are then cut off, leaving five or six 
eaves. After the cutting, smaller leaves begi zin to sprout, and 
these must be cut away, the larger and thicker the leaves, the better 
the tunbaku. 
maturity is known by the appearance of red "d on the in whic 
t 
stuck into the ground at the water-line, the leaves remaining 
ground. When the prickles on the leaves are quite dry, the а 
