Ill 
NOTE ON THE CULTURE OF SHEERAZ TOBACCO. 
BY DR. RIACH OF SHEERAZ. 
(Extracted from the Horticultural Transactions, Vol. I, Part 3, New Series.) 
In December, which is about the middle of winter here, the seed is sown in a 
dark soil, which has been slightly manured. To protect the seed, and keep it warm, 
the ground is covered with light thorny bushes, which are removed when the 
plants are three or four inches high ; and, during this period, the plants are 
watered every four or five days, only, however, in the event of sufficient rain to 
keep the soil well moistened not falling. 
The ground must be kept wet until the plants are six or eight inches high, 
when they are transplanted into a well moistened soil, which has been made into 
trenches for them ; the plants being put on the tops of the ridges, ten or twelve 
inches apart, while the trenched plots are made so as to retain the water given. 
The day they are transplanted, water must be given them, and also every five 
or six days subsequently, unless rain enough falls to render this unnecessary. 
When the plants have become two and a half to three and a quarter feet high, 
the leaves will be from eight to fifteen inches long. At this period, or when the 
flowers are forming, all the flower-bags are pinched, or twisted off. After this 
operation, the leaves increase in size and thickness, until the month of August or 
September, when each plant is cut off close to the root, and again stuck firmly into 
the ground. At this season of the year, heavy dews fall at night, while exposed 
to these, the colour of the leaves changes from green to the desired yellow. 
When the leaves are sufficiently yellow, the plants are taken from the earth 
early in the morning, and while they are yet wet with the dew, and heaped on each 
other in a kupper-house (shed), where they are freely exposed to the wind. While 
there, and generally in four or five days, those leaves which were still green, become 
of the desired pale yellow colour. The stalks and centre rib of each leaf are now 
removed, and thrown away. The leaves are again heaped together in the drying 
house for three or four days more, when they are in a fit state for packing. For 
this operation the leaves are carefully spread on each other and formed into a sort of 
cake, four to five feet in circumference, and three or four inches thick, great care 
being taken not to break or injure the leaves. 
Bags made of strong cloth, but thin, and very open at the sides, are filled with 
these cakes, which are pressed very strongly down on each other ; the leaves would 
be broken if this were not attended to. 
When the bags are filled they are placed separately in the drying-house, and 
turned daily, until they are to be sent away, when a second bag like the first is 
sometimes put on. 
If the leaves be so dry that there would be a risk of their breaking during the 
operation of packing, a very slight sprinkling of water is given them to enable them 
to withstand it without injury. The leaf is valued for being thick, tough, and of a 
uniform light yellow colour, and of an agreeable aromatic smell. 
