February 23. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
401 
Opium. Finding such edicts of no avail, they showed 
their worldly wisdom in filling their coffers with a heavy 
tax on the growth or importation of an article, the 
using of which they were powerless to prohibit—a tax 
that in one shape or another meets the tobacco con¬ 
sumer go almost where he will in civilised society. This 
is not the place to inquire into the propriety of a go¬ 
vernment taxing heavily any commodity, the use of 
which would foster the virtues, minister to the neces- 
! sitics, or encourage the vices of its people; but while a 
revenue must be collected, most disinterested persons 
t would admit that that revenue should be raised from 
luxuries rather than necessaries. In this former category 
I would place Tobacco. True, many a hard-working 
man, as well as they who would find it an impossibility 
to separate between the puffing of a cigar and an as¬ 
sumed gentility, look upon the “ weed” as an indis¬ 
pensable necessary; and often have J heard a working 
man, when remonstrated with about his grumbling as 
to his circumstances, and yet wasting so much per week 
on the soothing herb, forcibly declare, that he would 
give up his dinner before he gave up his pipe, though I 
believe it was but seldom that dining was neglected if 
it could be avoided. Thus loth had to be paid for, and 
the grumbling went on; the poor man forgetting that 
the chief means for his attaining comfort and respect¬ 
ability consist in striving, when young and healthy, for 
the means of securing some of the comforts and luxuries 
of existence, and then, by denying himself of their fre¬ 
quent use, obtain, by that honourable self-denial, the 
means of commanding comparative independence of 
character and position. 
Since corn has got up to something bordering upon 
famine price, I have heard less grumbling, from my 
farmer friends, that they are not allowed to grow Tobacco 
duty free, when they must compete with the world in 
corn. To my understanding, this would merely be 
protection over again. Our farmers may grow Tobacco 
now, against the foreigner, as much as they please; but 
they know their only chance of success would be in not 
being taxed as the foreigner is. The lover of Tobacco, 
in any of its shapes, would only obtain then an inferior 
article, at but little diminution in price. Some farmers, 
j last year, endeavoured to demonstrate to me, that on 
good soils in England they could raise a heavy crop of 
Tobacco as easily as a crop of turnips; but to this, eon- 
sideriug the natural tenderness of the plant, I wholly 
demur. That a crop should thus be obtained, by sowing 
in May, I do not deny; for I have often seen strongish 
plants, the seeds of which had been self-sown and sur¬ 
vived the winter. I have also seen strong patches of 
Tobacco far north of the Forth ; but there, in my own 
practice, and when cultivated by others, with the 
greatest success, in Meath and Wexford, in Ireland, the 
plants were treated as half-hardy or tender annuals: 
the seed being sown in hotbeds during the middle or 
end of March, pricked out into another bed, where they 
could be protected, or placed separately in pots, and then 
' transferred to rich, well-aired soil after the middle of 
May; shading them from the sun until the roots take 
hold, by means of pots, an evergreen branch, or a little 
; clean, loose litter, placed thin, and fastened on each side 
with a clot of earth. By these means our summers are 
| prolonged ; and fine specimens, as respects growth, may 
be expected. But it should not be forgotten that it 
is a very exhausting crop, and requires very richly- 
manured land. 
I hardly know what is the state of the law now. 
A lawyer told me, two years ago, that I was liable to 
a penalty for a piece which I had then growing 
—even though I applied it entirely to the destroying of 
insects. I suspect that Government would not interfere 
with a largish plot in a garden. With the first pro¬ 
mulgation of the taxing of the article, any one was 
allowed to grow half a pole for medical purposes; and, 
therefore, every cottager, who can conscientiously look 
upon Tobacco as a medicine, may comfortably grow that 
quantity; and then, by means of a slight hotbed, or 
raising his seedlings near his kitchen fire, and moving 
them to the window—much in the same way as men¬ 
tioned the other week for Pelargonium - seeds — by 
careful tending and curing, he may secure from three to 
four pounds of very passable Tobacco. 
The mode of sowing has already been referred to. As 
the seed is small it should be thinly covered. Whatever 
means are at hand for getting good plants by the middle 
of May should be adopted, as the quantity, if not the 
quality, will greatly depend on this. Towards the end 
of May, the ground having previously been well dunged, 
and aired, and pulverised, turn these good plants out 
about eighteen inches apart. I used to put them about 
sixteen inches in the row, and the rows three feet from 
each other. If taken from a box or bed a little shading 
was given at first. When young seedlings, as soon as 
they can he easily handled, are pricked out in beds or 
boxes, in lightish soil, and with very rotten dung beneath, 
giving them a square of three inches, from plant to plant, 
or even a little less, they can be raised with nice balls, by 
means of a trowel, and will soon take hold of the gar¬ 
den soil, and thus want but little shading. They must 
be watered every day in sunny weather for some time, 
using water well warmed, so as to increase the tempera¬ 
ture of the soil as warm as new milk. At this tender 
stage the plants are exposed to various enemies ; and a 
friend of ours has often told me that was just the best 
sign of how good a thing Tobacco is. Be this as it may, 
the wire-worm and the millipede will go some distance 
for a nibble, and traps of sliced Turnips, Carrots, &c., 
must be inserted in the soil as enticing guardians. Mr. 
Slug, however, is the worst to get rid of; brewers’ 
grains will prove a more attractive narcotic for him 
than even the Tobacco, and dozing on heaps of these he 
may be caught napping in a morning. Failing that, a 
little soot and lime often sprinkled round the plants is 
a good remedy. Surface-stirring of the ground with the 
hoe, but, better still, with the points of a fork, will cause 
them to flit their quarters, and be of great service to the 
plants. Plenty of waterings will be eagerly drunk in 
in dry, warm weather. If there is abundance of manure 
in the ground, a little quick-lime in the water will render 
the manure more soluble for the plants. If the ground 
is not well manured, it should be applied with the water¬ 
ings, in a liquid state; any kind being serviceable if 
not given too strong. By the time the plants have made 
from a dozen to eighteen leaves, the stem should be 
stopped, otherwise much of the strength of the plant 
would be thrown into the head of flowers and seeds. 
For garden use, two or three pods of seed will furnish 
an ample supply. After this stopping the leaves will 
increase rapidly in size. The check thus given to the 
ascending growth will cause laterals to push freely from 
the axils of the leaves, but these must be all carefully 
picked out as soon as they appear; in fact, the whole 
strength of the plaut must be thrown into the large,- 
massive foliage. The plants will be injured by a very 
small amount of frost, and, therefore, it is desirable to 
harvest the crop by the middle of September, or not 
long after; and, if all has gone well, the lower leaves 
will begin to show signs of arriving at maturity by that 
period. 
In gathering, or rather in drying and preserving the 
crop, much care is necessary, so much so, indeed,, that 
though it might be economical, so far as securing a 
source for destroying the green fly, it could never be 
economically managed, on a small scale, for securing 
the cottager four or five pounds of tobacco for smoking, 
if all the labour was to be accounted for. I have 
gathered the crop all at once, by pulling-up, or cutting. 
