Tobacco as a Farm Crop for England. 
229 
A. — The art of curing, no doubt, is difficult, but not insuper- 
able. I fully recognized the difficulties, hence my reason for 
asking for a trained scientific observer. The chief difficulty in 
acquiring a knowledge of tobacco-curing, or of any other 
process of a similar nature, is to make a true diagnosis. It is 
not only necessary to gain a result, but to know by what means 
that result has been gained. A result attained, though it be 
a wrong one, may be of the utmost value if the exact reason of 
its attainment be known. For example, drying my tobacco 
green was a wrong result, but it led to my being able to 
turn tobacco brown that had been by mistake dried green ; 
and yet I was better able to arrive at the knowledge of the 
processes which have been aimed at in America for many years, 
and which are now, I believe, known only to a few. I do not 
feel assured that I should have arrived successfully at this issue, 
had I not availed myself of the assistance of Mr. J. Randolph 
Hamilton, Jun., whose combined knowledge of tobacco, both 
in its details as a crop in America and as an article of merchan- 
dize in England, is probably unsurpassed. In following the 
American method of tobacco-curing, which is purposely adapted 
to a dry climate, and in trying to make that method meet the 
exigencies of our humid climate, for which it was never intended, 
some difficulties naturally presented themselves. I tried to 
hang my tobacco in a dry room after it was cured, but one 
season's experience will justify me in saying that it will be 
impossible to trust to the varying conditions of our climate 
without artificial heat. Lord VValsingham appears to have 
overcome the difficulty by bulking, or putting the tobacco in 
a heap, and keeping the room up to a temperature of 70° F. by 
means of fires, and by covering the tobacco with sacks. This 
is contrary to the general practice in America, where the 
tobacco is hung till the spring, and then bulked. 
Q. — Do you think that you were repaid for all this trouble ? 
A. — Certainly not pecuniarily. The whole of the tobacco 
might have been wilted for 8 or 10 days, and then dried in 
three kilns all at once in a week. There would have been only 
one-twentieth part of coal used, and only one-fifth part of the 
labour. But I wished to make the experiment as exhaustive 
as possible. Lord Walsingham, Mr. McCormick, Messrs. Carter 
& Co., and others, have shown how easily it can be done ; and 
Mr. Bateman, by his unfortunate fire, has given timely warning 
to farmers to use the utmost care in the future. 
Q. — I should like to see some tangible result for all this trouble 
and expense that you were put to. 
A. — The result may seem at first thought hardly equal to the 
time and trouble expended upon it, but you will find great 
