630 
CULTURE OF TOBACCO, 
in a stable yard. The mass of leaves soon heat themselves suffici- 
ently dry, to be in a fit state to pack up for use, either for fumigating 
or other purposes. It ought to be known, and it is not the least im- 
portant part of the art, that the land should be rich, prepared as if 
for cucumbers, and the plants previously (in this country) raised 
earlj^, on a hot bed, are potted off, shifted, and hardened by degrees 
like the tomatoes, then turned out of the pots, and planted in rows, 
four to six feet apart from plant to plant each way, for if it be a fine 
season, and they be judiciously managed, each leaf will measure from 
two to three feet long, and be very broad and fleshy. When the 
jjlants have got from six to eight leaves each, according to their vigour, 
take off the top of each, and as the buds at the base of the leaves 
break pick them out, so as to blind every eye upon the plant ; some 
jDlanters retain a bud at top, to carry up the sap more readily, and 
like the spurring of vines, pinch it back occasionally, but that is said 
to be unnecessary. By such process all the sap is thrown into the 
leaves, so that by the commencement of the season for collecting, 
they will be very fine. To prepare tobacco properly it must undergo 
a considerable degree of fermentation, and there must be boxes of 
sufficient capacity to contain a body of sufficient bulk, to create the 
required degree of heat, or it is not tobacco. To manage it properly 
you must at least have as many boxes as there are leaves on one 
plant, and as many plants that a leaf taken from each will fill one 
box, say 200 plants, which I think would be leaves enough to pro- 
duce the required fermentation. As soon as the bottom leaves have 
done growing, and begin to change of a yellow hue they are fit to 
gather, and not till then, so that only one can be in a projoer state to 
detach from the plant at one time ; they are hung in the shade as be- 
fore mentioned, and, when in a fit state, laid in the first box for the 
process of fermentation. When the next leaves are tit to detach, 
they are treated in the same manner, and so on until the six or eight 
leaves are gathered from each plant, C4)nsequently, all the boxes filled. 
For further details on this subject, I leave the affair to those who 
have had far better opportunities of becoming acquainted with the 
process of culture, and method of first manufacture than myself. 
J. Mearns. 
