70 
NICOTIANA. 
(hare of free air in warm weather. When the plants have 
obtained a good (hare of ftrength, tranfplant them into 
feparate pots, and plunge them into a moderate hot-bed, 
to bring them forward. About the middle of June fome 
of the plants may be fhaken out of the pots, and planted 
in beds of rich earth ; but it will be proper to keep one 
or two plants in pots, to be placed in the flove, in cafe the 
feafon fhould prove bad, that they may ripen their feeds. 
In America, when a regular plantation of tobacco is 
intended ; the beds being prepared and well turned up 
with the hoe, the feed, on account of its fmallnefs, is 
mixed with afhes, and fown upon them, a little before the 
rainy feafon. The beds are raked, or trampled with the 
feet, to make the feed take the fooner. The plants ap¬ 
pear in two or three weeks. So foon as they have ac¬ 
quired four leaves, the ftrongeft are drawn up carefully, 
and planted in the field by a line, at the diftance of about 
three feet from each plant. If no rain fall, they fliould 
be watered two or three times. Every morning and even¬ 
ing the plants muft be looked over, in order to deftroy a 
worm which fometimes invades the bud. When they are 
about four or five inches high they are to be cleared from 
weeds and moulded up. As foon as they have eight or 
nine leaves, and are ready to put forth a (talk, the top is 
nipped off, in order to make the leaves longer and thicker. 
After this the buds which fprout at the joints of the 
leaves are all plucked, and not a day is fuffered to pats 
without examining the leaves, to deftroy a large caterpil¬ 
lar, which is fometimes very deftrudtive to them. When 
they are fit for cutting, which is known by the brittienefs 
of the leaves,they arecut with aknifeclofe to the ground ; 
and, after lying fome time, are carried to the drying fhed, 
or houfe, where the plants are hung up by pairs, upon 
lines, leaving a fpace between, that they may not touch 
one another. In this ftate they remain to fweat and dry. 
When perfectly dry, the leaves are ftripped from the ftalks, 
and made into fmall bundles, tied with one of the leaves. 
Thefe bundles are laid in heaps, and covered with 
blankets. Care is taken not to overheat them, for which 
reafon the heaps are laid open to the air from time to time, 
and fpread abroad. This operation is repeated til! no 
more heat is perceived in the heaps ; and the tobacco is 
then flowed in calks for exportation. 
In China, where the life of tobacco both in fnuff and 
for fmoking is very general, buildings are not thought 
neceffary, as they are in the Weft Indies, for curing it ; 
there being little appreiienfion of rain to injure the leaves 
when plucked. They are hung on cords to dry, without 
any fhelter, upon the fpot in which they grew. Each 
owner, with his family, takes care of his own produce. 
This indicates both the nature of the climate little fub- 
jeft to moifture, and the general division of property into 
minute parcels. Thus the Chinefe grow tobacco enough 
for their own confumption, and will not allow any to be 
imported, fo as to difcourage their own cultivators. The 
prohibition to import it, which has long exifted in that 
country, was lately notified to the American conful at 
Canton in the following manner : 
Note to the American ConJ'ul, Mr. Will Lodes. 
“ May he be promoted to great powers ! 
“ We acquaint you, that the foreign opium, the dirt 
which is ufed for fmoking, is prohibited by command. 
It is not permitted that it fhall come to Canton. The 
fhip which brings it will be immediately fequeftrated. We 
beg you, good brother, to inform the honoured prefident 
of your country of the circumllance ; and to make it 
known, that the dirt ufed for fmoking is an article pro¬ 
hibited in the celeftial empire. 
“ Paunkbyqua Mowqua, &c. Kai-Hing, 2zd year, 
5th month, aid day.” Canton, May 22, x8i8. 
Tobacco is cultivated in open fields in fevera) parts of 
the continent of Europe ; and might doubtiefs be grown 
to advantage in England, if it were not prohibited by adt 
of parliament. This is one remarkable inftance of the 
continuance of a monopoly, in favour of the merchant, 
at the coft of the landed intereft. For the encouragement 
of the plantations in North America, it was firft deemed 
expedient to prohibit the cultivation of tobacco in the 
mother-country. The 12 Car. II. c. 34.. impofed a duty 
of forty fhillings per rod, or pole, upon all grounds 
planted with tobacco. This heavy duty, with all the ad¬ 
vantages of foil and climate, does not feem to have been 
a fufficient protection to the colonies; for, three years af¬ 
terwards, it was found neceffary to increafe the penalty, 
and add others. By 15 Gar. II. c. 7. the duty was raifed 
to twelve pounds a-rod; and even this feemed to have 
been inefficient; for the 22, 23, Car. II. c. 26. orders all 
conftables and other officers, under penalties, to enter the 
grounds, and pluck up and deftroy the tobacco-plants, 
after Hating, that, notwithftanding the former afts, the 
culture of tobacco was increafing. This llatute appears 
to have effectually put a flop to it in England ; but to¬ 
wards the end of the American war, the aft not being 
deemed to affeCl Scotland, a confiderable cultivation of 
the plant took place there, chiefly, we believe, in the 
neighbourhood of Keifo, where above 1000 acres are faid 
to have been fuccefsfully planted in this manner. To 
prevent this, the 22 Geo. III. c. 73. was palled, extend¬ 
ing the penalties of the former flatutes to Scotland, and 
with decifive effeCl. It fhould feem that this policy was 
not capable of thriving on the weft of St. George’s Chan¬ 
nel ; for the prohibition was repealed as to Ireland by the 
19 Geo. III. c. 35. upon the ground that it was expedient 
to encourage the filler-kingdom in the growth of every 
thing which did not interfere with the interefts of the 
larger ifland. The reader may perhaps think that a fuffi¬ 
cient fhare of abfurdity is perceivable in this policy, as 
far as we have hitherto traced it; but a greater incon- 
fiftency remains to be noticed. The whole objeCt of the 
prohibition, or nearly the whole, was the encouragement 
of our colonies in North America. But they were now 
no longer ours ; they had become to all intents a foreign 
Hate ; nay, a Hate peculiarly the objeCt of jealoufy, and 
efpecially of commercial jealoufy; and yet we continued, 
and to this day maintain, in their favour, the prohibition 
of tobacco-planting in our own dominions ! and, having 
once prevented the Englifh farmer from growing it, to 
encourage our fellow-fubjedt the colonial-planter, we ftili 
continue the prohibition to encourage the planter be¬ 
come an alien, and &ven while he is an enemy. Now, it 
feems extremely reafbnable, were it only for the fake of 
confillency, to repeal the prohibition, and allow the Eng¬ 
lifh farmer to grow tobacco if he finds his profit in it. 
Two objedlions have been urged againft this meafure. It 
is faid that the foil and climate are not adapted to tobacco¬ 
planting. We do not believe they are fitted for the 
culture of a very fine fpecies; but that good tobacco 
might be grown is clear, from the evidence before a com¬ 
mittee of the houfe of commons in 1816. It is grown in 
Holland; and the evidence fnowed, that ours was better 
than the Dutch. It is laid to require very good land 5 and 
Mr. Arthur Young Hates the expenfe of the rent and 
planting an acre at five pounds each ; the value of the 
crop being, at an average, fifteen pounds. Certainly, un- 
Jefs the cultivation is peculiarly coftly, this is a very va¬ 
luable crop; it is equal to a wheat-crop at the high price 
of 100s. and it cannot be a very fcourging crop, for the 
evidence defcribes it as always followed by wheat. Mr. 
Young’s reafons for believing that it could not be grown 
to advantage, refolve themfelves very much into the diffi¬ 
culty of the procefs, and the inferiority of Britilh to Vir¬ 
ginia tobacco. But there feems no reafon to doubt that 
the former could be got over; and that the latter would be 
balanced by its greater cheapnefs, which would adapt it 
to the confumption of the lower clafl'es. At all events, 
the hiftory'oi the prohibition fhows, that there was atone 
time a very material advantage to be derived from this 
kind of tillage ; arid the removal of the penalties would 
belt fhow, whether it could now be turned to account 
upon 
