220 Tobacco as a Farm Crop for England. 
might be worth from Is. dd. to 2s., and each leaf l^d. or 2c?. ; 
for with regard to the important question of technical educa- 
tion, it is high time we attempted to regain our position as a 
commercial power, which we have undeniably lost of late 
years through our manifest inferiority to other countries on 
this very head. Surely, then, it is not too much to ask a 
Government which spends so much in national education, 
and which is on the point of being asked to expend a still larger 
sum on national scientific education, to aid an experiment 
towards the production of a crop which, if successful, will go 
far to provide the agricultural community with remunerative 
labour, and also, as we gather from the United States Reports, 
will contribute largely to their education and intelligence^ — all 
without any direct monetary grant from the Government. 
Q. — Do you expect tobacco will take the place of wheat in 
England ? 
A. — No ; but it may in conjunction with other crops become 
a great boon, not only to the agricultural community, but also 
to the whole population of workers — men, women and children, 
in the towns where it is manufactured. 
Wheat can be grown in this country, but it cannot be grown 
profitably at the present price, though English wheat is oiten 
equal to foreign ; and I am in a position to state that India 
alone, without any help from America, is able to supply all 
the wheat we now consume. We have arrived at the know- 
ledge that wheat cannot be grown here at a profit, which is 
also, I am afraid, equally applicable to much of our agricultural 
produce, except in a few specially favoured districts. The 
same conclusion may eventually be forced upon us with regard to 
tobacco, though such a result is not yet proved ; and I consider 
the profit at the commencement of the attempt only secondary 
to testing whether or not tobacco can be successfully grown, 
Q. — But surely the question of profit is the real question ? 
A. — No doubt it will eventually be when tobacco comes to be 
regularly cultivated, but it is not now the first to be proved. 
Hence it is necessary to prove that we can grow tobacco of a 
certain quality, before we can enter upon the question of its 
profitable growth. 
Q. — Why should not the question of profit be first proved ? 
A. — Because it has been denied that tobacco can be grown in 
England, and it was necessary to test that statement, before the 
question of profit could be entered into. 
Q. — Was not the late Mr. Jenkins of opinion that tobacco 
could not be brought to maturity in England from want of sun ? 
A. — Yes, and many others held the same opinion. Mr. 
Jenkins had considered tlie ({ucstion thorougldy from his 
