1920.] 



Tobacco Growing in England. 



528 



in your prepared ground from whence you may expect a very 

 good crop and sometimes two crops in a year. The leaves 

 when gathered are first laid together on heaps for some time 

 and then hanged up (by a thread run through them) in the 

 shade until they are dry and then put up and kept, the longer 

 the hetter. In this, experience is the best master." This con- 

 siderable cultivation sufficiently proves the popularity which 

 tobacco had attained during the century immediately following 

 Hawkins's and Raleigh's time. 



Notwithstanding its popularity, tobacco had incurred the 

 censure of James I.; and is expressed in his famous " Counter- 

 blast to Tobacco." His dislike was shared by Cromwell., who 

 sent troops to tread down the fields, but the Parliamentary 

 soldiers are said to have smoked at the Protector's funeral in 

 order to celebrate their recovered liberty. Tn Charles II. 's 

 time tobacco flourished at Winchcombe in the Vale of 

 Evesham, but rather than collect excise duty the authorities 

 preferred to abolish the English growth. They were prompted 

 also by certain courtiers w T ho desired a monopoly in the 

 Virginian plantations. Pepys records that it was necessary 

 to send down troops to destroy the tobacco fields, and, as in 

 Ireland at a later date, an industry was deliberately wiped 

 out of existence. By this time it might have developed such 

 proper varieties, methods of cultivation and manufacture as 

 would give it a suitable position in the general market. 



In 1831 the Act permitting tobacco to be grown in Scotland 

 and Ireland was repealed, apparently on account of the 

 difficulty of excise supervision. Tn 1886 and 1887, however, 

 small trial plots were permitted in England, but the results 

 were not encouraging. Tobacco cultivation in this country 

 may be accounted practically non-existent since the early years 

 of the 19th Century. An attempt made in 1883 to revive the 

 industry failed, owing to incomplete knowledge of the best 

 methods of managing the crop. Tobacco is a highly specialised 

 plant requiring intensive and careful cultivation. The Leaf 

 intended for smoking must be very carefully blended. It is 

 to be feared that the home industry has been prejudiced by 

 popular distrust of British-grown tobacco, a prejudice that may 

 have arisen from successive failures to establish cultivation 

 in these islands. 



In L907 the Act of 1831 was repealed, and since that time 

 it has been lawful to cultivate tobacco in Ireland. With 

 regard to prices for British tobacco it is interesting to note 



