276 The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



Punjab and also in Purnea, in East Bengal, 

 it is said to be supplanting the cultivated forms 

 of Nicotiana tabacum : while it is the prevailing 

 species in the damper soils of the Southern por- 

 tion of the tobacco-growing district of Rung- 

 pur in East Bengal. 



Now N. rustica is the species that is almost 

 exclusively grown in the United States and 

 according to Comes has given rise to six varie- 

 ties on account of the very different climatic 

 conditions under which it has been cultivated 

 from time immemorial in the new world. All 

 the varieties of N. rustica, to judge from the 

 photographs in the monograph under reference 

 are broad-leaved ; that is to say, the leaves are 

 more or less heart-shaped ; and are thus easily 

 distinguishable from the varietal forms of 

 2V. tabacum, which are long-leaved. It is this 

 species that is principally grown all over India, 

 but chiefly in Southern India, and produces the 

 great bulk of what is known as 



TRICHINOPOLY AND COCONAPA. 



tobacco. It should be noted that in this, as 

 well as in other countries, it forms the most 

 important source of the tobacco of commerce ; 

 and is therefore the more important of the two 

 principal forms of the plant grown for the use 

 oi man, 



What is called the " flavour " of tobacco is 

 obtained from three sources ; first, soil and 

 climate; second, cultivation, and third, the 

 bacteria of fermentation. The species or variety 

 of tobacco cultivated has really very little to 

 do with " flavour." It has been found, for ex- 

 ample, that by the introduction of a ferment 

 from some particular tobacco, its flavour has 

 been imparted to another. Again, seeds of the 

 Havana or Manila varieties, sown in India, 

 produce plants exactly true to type; but the 

 resulting tobacco manufactured from these 

 loaves bears no resemblance to that of the pro- 

 duct of their country of origin. Here we have 

 several factors to account for this result Soil, 

 climate, cultivation, may all have their due 

 share ; but above all these is the absence of 



THE PARTICULAR. FERMENT. 



This is a matter so well-known to practical tobac- 

 co-makers that there is no need to emphasize it. 



For years past plants have been raised in 

 India from Havana and Manila seed. There is 

 no difficulty in raising the plants from seed; 

 but it is a curious fact that the leaf, when 

 manufactured, proves very disappointing, oome 

 years ago there was established at Pusa a 

 tobacco factory, where the Havana and Manila, 

 as well as the Virginiau varieties of tobacco 

 were raised. A European expert was imported 

 to initiate the curing of the leaf and the manu- 

 facture of pipe tobacco as well as cigars. The 

 loaf, when cured, looked all right. It was of the 

 l ight texture, and even the colour was satis- 

 factory ; but it lacked the flavour and " body '.' 

 which we associate with Havana and Manila 

 cigars, and the Virginian pipe tobacco. The 

 factory was maintained for some years, but the 

 demand for its manufactures did not come up 

 to expectation and it was wound up and closed. 



After the lapse of many years 



TOBACCO EXPERIMENTS ARE NOW BE1NU CARRIED 

 OUT AT PUSA, 



at the Research Institute ; the first results of Mr 

 and Mrs Howard's "Studies" have just been 

 published. And what has been stated in the 

 foregoing lines is fully borne out by these in- 

 vestigators, who write :—" In perhaps no other 

 cultivated crop is the question of quality so 

 important as in tobacco." By "quality" is 

 perhaps meant the "smoking quality" of the 

 article. For a leaf of very high " grade,'' in the 

 matter of size and texture, may be grown, yet 

 the "smoking quality" of the manufactured 

 tobacco may lack the quality of the Havana, 

 Manila, Sumatra, or other tobacco. The authors 

 of the "Studies'' then go on to say: — "The 

 general opinion seems to be that, with the ex- 

 ception of some of the crop grown for cigar- 

 fillers in Madras, the quality of Indian tobacco 

 is not high. Whether this is due to the varie- 

 ties grown, to the methods of cultivation, to 

 climate, soil and moisture conditions, to the 

 curing, or to a combination of these causes, 

 is not known with precision. Several attempts 

 have been made in the past to improve the 

 quality of Indian tobacco by the introduction 

 of American and Sumatra varieties, and by the 

 employment of American curers but up to the 

 present no results have been obtaiued." These 

 conclusions are perfectly correct — up to a point; 

 for when the writers under reference advance 

 the proposition that " the first step in the im- 

 provement of Indian tobaccos is necessarily the 

 study of the various types at present cultivated 

 in the country," there is room for a difference of 

 opinion, based upon actual results. 



Within the past few months the writer of 

 these lines has been in correspondence with 

 one of the largest European firms of cigar 

 manufacturers in Southern India, pointing 

 ' them the falling off in quality of the indigenous 

 tobacco used by them for cigars; that some 

 thirty years ago their Indian cigars used to be 

 of very high quality, and in great demand all 

 over the country, when the covering leaf used 

 not to be of Sumatra or Java, but of Indian to- 

 bacco, the texture and curing of which used to 

 be all that was required. Their reply is very 

 instructive reading, and is quoted below: — 



"The deterioration in Indian 'wrapper' leaf is 

 due to a falling off in the demand for cigars cover- 

 ed with Indian leaf. Whilst you are correct in 

 saying that the Indian ' wrapper ' leaf was better 

 years ago, it never approached the excellence of 

 the Sumatra leaf, and year by year the demand 

 for cigars covered with a Sumatra wrapper has 

 increased until it has become general. In conse- 

 quence, growers found it did not pay thoiu 

 tu take the same care and trouble over the culti- 

 vation and curing of 'wrapper ' tobacco and the 

 land was allowed to become impoverished to the 

 detriment of the crops raised. It is a fact that 

 Indian 'wrapper ' leaf can be improved ; but 

 owing to the difference in climate it will never 

 attain the perfection reached by Sumatra and 

 the additional cost of production may possibly 

 exceed the cost of duty on imported tobacco.'' 

 —Pioneer, Aug. 25. 



