CULTURE OF TOBACCO,

Otago Witness, Issue 98, 2 April 1853, Page 2

CULTURE OF TOBACCO,

To the Editors of the Sydney Morning Herald.

Gentlemen, — Your talented correspondent, " A Man of Letters," in writing upon this article of colonial industry, truly says, " Theieis much room for improvement in the growth and management of this plant." It is to furnish information, calculated to promote this improvement, I now write ; I therefore request the favour of your affording publicity to the following.

The land selected for the growth of tobacco ought to be' of the most fertile description, and upon which no water can rest within eighteen inches of the surface. Newly cleared brush lands of this nature are the most prolific; upon such, after good tillage, put the plants about four feet or more apart, in rows, and five feet six inches asunder. In the inferior or old ground, plant proportionally closer. Before topping or nipping off the head, all the lower leaves (that is all such as may touch the ground) ought to be broken off, leaving only from five to seven for the crop, which will yield a greater weight and be of superior quality than if double that number were left. When ripe, a dry cloudy day should be selected to cut it, as the sun destroys its quality after cutting. It ought then to lay sufficiently long upon the ground so as to welt before carting to the sheds, hanging up each stalk next morning so as not to touch its fellow.

The drying sheds ought to be built upon an elevated or dry spot, with a boarded floor of rough split stuff, fifteen or eighteen inches from the ground, with apertures as windows to admit or exclude the external atmosphere. In damp weather close all the doors and windows; also every night ; in contrary weather open all. In these drying houses the stalks should remain suspended up til the vegetable moisture is entirely evaporated, so that on a dry day the stems of the leaves will break like a glass pipe, and the fine parts crumble into snuff.upon compression, after which, in humid weather, they ■will become quite pliable ; then strip the leaves off the stems, make them into bands, and pack them tightly into a close bin ; when full, cover it with boards and old bagging stuff, upon which place heavy weights. In this state it undergoes the sweating process, one which, in this colony, is either little understood or not properly attended to, and one, upon the skill displayed thereon, the quality of tobacco greatly depends. I will therefore give some general directions upon this portion of the planter's office. If the tobacco should happen to be too damp when put into the bin, it will attain either an injuiious or a destructive degree of heat: it must, therefore, be watched f'oi some days after it is packed. To an inexperienced operator I would say, if the heat exceed SO degrees of temperature, immediately unpack and rehang the whole, waiting its condition as before explained, before it is again put into the sweating bin. Should the degree of heat be below that stated, it may remain for weeks or until its heat has subsided. I have generally removed it from the sweating process in about fourteen or twenty days, sometimes considerably longer, regulating that act by the colour and odour of the leaf; if, however, it appears to be attaining a very dark brown colour, and its heat not subsided, it should be taken out and closely pressed into large cases or casks, when it will again attain a gentle heat called the " second sweating," as is invariably the case with the hogsheads of the American leaf tobacco; this again improves its quality. Here the grower's operations terminate.

It may be here necessary to remark, that how skilful and experienced soever the grower may be.it is hardly possible for him to produce a good article upon a small scale ; for with a less quantity than one ton to place in the sweatin°" bin at a time, the requisite heat to insure success will not be generated. I would further observe, that the practice of the colonists in growing what they term a "second ciop" is most injurious to their interests, their lands, and the quality and character of the colonial tobacco. The American planter never attempts it. I would, therefore, strongly recommend its discontinuance, and also never to crop one piece of land with tobacco more than two or three years in succession. The Americans rarely take more than two crops, unless the land is new ; after which they sow it down with grasses, in which state it remains two or three years before it is again planted in tobacco. I would recommend this plan to the growers. The character of the American tobacco has been greatly advanced in the mercantile world by an ordinance regulating that souice of national wealth. The planters are thereby obliged to deposit their crops in warehouses, over which sworn inspectors preside, who rigidly examine every hogshead, and if found to be of mercantile quality grant the owner a certificate, by ■which instrument only he sells his produce. The purchaser is hereby safe in buying these certificates. The tobacco to which they refer is delivered to the holder on presentation to the inspector. I mention this not as applicable here at present, but it most probably may hereafter. At present the quantity of tobacc» grown in this colony is equal to three-fourths of its consumption, and which production is of a very inferior quality lo the imported. These facts tend to show that my notice of the subject is not inopportune, and particularly so, when my object is to point out those errors so generally adopted by the tobacco growers here. Years of practical experience, of personal obsenation upon the plantations in North America, and my having been, I believe, the grower of the greatest quantity of tobacco in the colony, qualify me to afford instructions ihcreon j thereby, if attended to, our tobacco will become fully equal to the American, as was proved to be the case by the crops I grew here; upwards of 40 tons (a great portion of the crop I grew had leaves measuring two feet nine inches in length, and eighteen inches wide, being larger than I ever knew to have been grown in America. The average weight I obtained per acre was 26 cwt. ; whereas I see by the public returns the average of what is grown here is only 17 l-7th cwt.) was sold in Sydney by the Commissariat Department at public auction at an advance of twenty per cent more than the imported leaf. As the duty upon tobacco is about to be re-

duced, the present production may fall off unless an immediate improvement in its quality take place. Instead of being importers of tobacco, we should, if it were grown here to perfection, be exporters of it to all our sister colonies ; and in its raw state, also to the European markets. At present, for home consumption, there is a greater profit to be made by its cultivation, if skilfully managed, than in any part of the world ; for the duty upon imported is a positive bonus to the grower. — I am, &c, Planter.