732 
jVotes on the Cultivation of Tobacco 
Big Frederick, One-sucker, and Island Broad-leaf, several of 
which are not known on the European Continent, but have 
characteristic American names. Messrs. Carter and Co. are 
experimenting with 17 varieties, which include all the fore- 
going, except the ^lacrophjlla, and in addition the Havannah, 
Yellow Prior, Virginian, White Burlev, White Stem, and 
Yellow Oronoko varieties. The results of these experiments, 
and of those made by Lord Walsingham in Norfolk, Lord 
Harris in Kent, and others, cannot be thoroughly ascertained 
until next autumn, as it requires about eighteen months to com- 
plete the whole process from the sowing of the seed to the" 
ultimate manufacture of tobacco. Mr. de Laune has been so 
good as to promise to prepare a complete Report upon his 
experiments and their results for publication in a future number 
of this ' Journal.' 
Before entering into technical matters, it is most desirable to 
say a few words on the subject of climate, because tobacco is not 
a hardy but a sub-tropical plant. I consider it useless to quote 
the dates or the methods of the various operations connected with 
the cultivation and curing of tobacco in America and the South of 
France, in the Levant or in India, although I have noticed that 
English writers on the subject within the last few months have 
drawn their illustrations from any country in which tobacco is 
grown without reference to its climate or its fiscal arrangements. 
In support of my view, I may mention that last August, being in 
Bordeaux, I called upon the " Directeur des Tabacs " for that 
district of France, and asked him to give me a copy of the 
regulations issued by the French Government to the authorised 
growers of tobacco in the Gironde, and I explained why I 
preferred my request. He replied, " I will give you the docu- 
ment with pleasure, and any other information you may desire, 
but I would recommend you not to act upon the rules or upon 
mv information, because you will only mislead yourself and 
probably mislead others, as there is probably no plant so sensitive 
to climatic influences as tobacco. I should recommend you to 
study the subject in the Departments of the Nord and the Pas de 
Calais, which are the only two departments in France likely to 
furnish you with useful information." This is precisely the 
view that I have always taken, not only in reference to the 
subject of this paper, but with regard to other crops which can ho 
profitably cultivated under more sunny skies than we can 
reckon upon in our humid climate.* I may add that a careful 
* An interesting, and in some rcspcct.s instructive, little book on Tobncro has 
recently been published by Jlr. Stanford ; but the author (Mr. P. M. Taylor) 
describes tlie system pursued in the Dciiartment of the Lot ct Garonne, wJiich is 
even less applicable to a northern Luinid climate than that ordcrc<l by tlit 
Ee'gie for the Gironde. 
