TfflP TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [June 2, 1S90. 
THE TOBACCO PLANT. 
After the cereals, there is perhaps no plant so exten. 
sively cultivated and utilised aa the tobacco plant. It 
is grown and employed as a narcotic in almost every 
country of the world, and it has been calculated that 
one-fourth of the human family use it. 
At the Colonial Exhibition in London the dried leaf 
and its preparations were shown by India and every 
one of our possessions, and the Paris Exhibition has 
supplemented this display by showing its extensive pro- 
duction in Europe, North and South America, Eastern 
Asia, the Pacific Islands, and the continent of Africa. 
It is somewhat difficult to obtain trustworthy infor- 
mation regarding the world's trade in tobacco, because 
bo much is used up locally in different countries. It is 
probable that the total area under tobacco is not far 
short of 6,000,000 acres. For the year 1886 certain 
official returns are available, which show that the United 
States, India, and Hungary are the largest producers. 
The area under tobacco in acres was in- 
United States ... 752,520 
India ... 641,000 
Hungary and Austria 149,468 
Germany 49,312 
France ... ... ••• ••• 37,156 
Algeria 20,478 
Italy 12,061 
Holland 3,218 
2,106,213 
The consumption of tobacco in the United Kingdom 
is large and progressive, and the revenue derived from 
it last year was nearly £8,750,000. The average con- 
sumption is largest in Holland.— nearly 7 lb. per head; 
in the United States about 4| lb.; in Hungary, 
Denmark, Bekium, and Germany from 3 to 3£lb. In 
the Aus'ralian Colonies it is also high— 3| lb. ; in France 
it is about 2 lb., and in the United Kingdom under 
!£ 'b. . , 
The yearly production of tobacco in Cuba is about 
300,000 bales, and 181,000,000 cigars are also exported. 
The Spaniards have hitherto monopolised the trade in 
cigars, alleging that parts of the soil of Cuba were 
alone suited to the production of Havana tobacco. 
This assertion is now disproved, for with good choice 
of seed, soil, and leaf, and skilled manufacture, Jamaica 
is said now to send into the market as excellent a cigar 
as was ever chipped from Havana, and at a far cheaper 
rate. In the Philippines 100.000 cwts. of tobacco are 
produced. The Dutch possessions in the Eastern Archi- 
pelago ship a large quantity of excellent tobacco, which 
is held in high repute in Europe. The imports of 
Sumatra tobacco in Holland now average 140,000 bales, 
and of Java tobacco 130,000 bales. 
Although there are about fifty species of the genus 
Nicotiana known, only three or four are much culti- 
vated for the leaf. The two principal commercial forms 
are by some botanists treated as varieties, and not as 
distinct species. These are N. Tabacum, the most 
extensively cultivated kind of plant, which may be at 
once recognised by its longish pink flowers and tapering 
oval-lanceolate sessile leaves; and W. rustica, which 
has short greenish flowers and stalked ovate, cordate 
leaves. The leaves are coarser and more crumpled than 
those of the preceding. This is popularly known as the 
Turkish form, but it is most probably a native of 
Mexico and California. N. repanda is not very exten- 
sively cultivated, but is said to yield some of the finest 
qualities of Cuban tobacco. N. Persica furnishes the 
Persian or Shiraz tobacco. N. angustifolia, a species 
found in Chili, yields a very strong tobacco. 
The West Indian, Latakia, and American tobaccos 
are obtained from cultivated plants of N. Tabacum, 
while the Manila, Turkish, and Hungarian are reported 
to be derived from N. nistica. In India N, rustica is 
onlv cultivated to a very limited extent, and chiefly 
in Eastern Bengal and Caclw, and the leaf is never 
exported to Europe. N. Tabacum has become an 
abundant weed in many parts of India. The gross 
annual value of the tobacco harvest in Bengal may be 
roughly estimated at .£2,000,000 sterling, but the 
quantity exported is small, averaging only £13,000 in 
value. 
Of the Bpecies, N. macrophylla is considered to poss- 
ess the qualities that distinguish a good tobacco in 
the highest degree. Some of the Havana tobaccos 
belong to this species. Madras, where the climate is 
admirably suited for the growth of tobacco, stands first 
with regard to the development of this industry in 
India. Dinnigul is'the great tobacco district, and 
cheroots are manufactured at Trichinopoli. The 
islands in the delta of the Godavery also yield what 
is called Lunk tobacco, the climate heing suitable, and 
the plants are raised in rather poor light soil, highly 
manured and well watered. No better evidence could 
be afforded of the universal use of this plant than the 
extensive display which was made of it in pvery section 
of the Paris Exhibition, and although most of the cases 
were under seal of the Customs, yet many of the 
kiosks were privilesed to sell, such as the Dutch, 
Belgian, Spanish, Mexican, &c, although tbe sale and 
manufacture is a Government monopoly in France, and 
licenses are only granted to privileged people. — Journal 
of the Society of Arts. 
FARMING AT 
CAWNPORE 
STATION. 
EXPERIMENTAL 
In the Council report for 1888 we read : — It is 
not claimed that anything novel in regard to 
value as manure of gypsum has been evolved at the 
farm ; but we seek by experiments to prove that its 
worth in India is as great as its reputation elsewhere 
and to rouse attention to tbe fact, tbat owing to 
recent railway development vast quantities of a valu- 
able mineral manure at comparatively small cost are 
now open to farmers in this country, which until the 
t 2 or 3 years were pnrt'eallv inaccessible. For the 
rabi season tbe chief results obtained are summarised 
by the Assistant Director to have been — 
(1) that the application of saltpetre has a more 
direct effect on straw than on grain. 
(2) that the most economical manure for wheat is 
farmyard manure. 
(3) that when farmyard manure cannot be obtained 
at a sufficiently cheap rate, green soiling with hemp 
is the most economical way of enriching the land. 
(4) that good results can be got by using various 
waste substances now neglected of the people. 
(5) that a moderately deep ploughing of 5 inches 
gives better results than ploughing so deep as 9 inches. 
(6) that to feed cattle with cake and apply the dung 
to the land is more economical than to apply the 
cake direct. 
The usual quantity of ensilage was made and 
proved perfectly good. 
Trials with various machines were carried out, in 
particular of two new patent sugar mills. A centri- 
fugal sugar refining machine, a centrifugal cream 
separator, a grain separator worked by power, three 
different water lifts, and three kinds of hand-threshers 
were amongst the new implements placed on their 
trial. It was mentioned last year that cultivators in 
the neighbourhood of the farm had begun at last to 
borrow our ploughs and water-lifts, and tbe same has 
occured in the past year. Our progress in inducing 
cultivators to adopt what we can demonstrate to them 
to be sound improvements may be slow, but to those 
who expect in India rapid reform in such matters 
may be commended a study of Mr. ! Prothero's work — 
"The Pioneers and Progress or English farming." 
Writing of the 'close of the 18th century, he says, 
" traditional practices were traditional heir-looms 
which farmers guarded with zealous care, ocular proof 
of new systems failed to wean them from the routine 
of their ancestors." "By immemorial custom in 
Gloucestershire two men and a boy, with a team of 
six horses, were employed for ploughing. Mr. Coke 
sent a Norfolk ploughman into the country who, with 
a pair of horses and a Norfolk plough, did the same 
amount of work in the same time. But though the 
annual expenses were thus diminished by £120, it 
was 20 years before neighbours profited by the lesson." 
"In 1780 a Norfolk farmer settled in Devonshire 
