TOBACCO GROWING.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 41, 18 February 1914, Page 4

TOBACCO GROWING.

Though not many people know it| South African tobacco, particularly, since the time oi the Mar, has been a good deal talked about. The industry, however, in the sub-continent generally. apart from parts of the Transvaal and Rhodesia, is almost entirely undeveloped from a scientific point of | view. But large areas of land in vari-i ous parts of.the country are adapted j to the growth of tobacco. The things that the farmers are slow in learning, before attempting cultivation on a large scale, are the grade of leaf they propose to produce and the market for it. Transvaal tobacco has earned a reputation among pipe smokers,hut tins; is, to a great extent, due to the peculiar method of preparing the leaf for | consumption. The leaf used is of a heavy type, grown from hybrid seed (originally Virginian)y roughly cured, and dark in colour. There is a large demand for this class of tobacco, hut the supply far exceeds the demand,and in consequence the price realised for the best crops does not exceed lOd per lh. The leaf produced in the Cape Colony is of similar type, and, when 1 grown in light soil, lacks aroma, and is brittle and very difficult to handle. Farmers have been in the past content to grow this grade leaf, and more attention has been paid to quantity than quality. The object of the farmers has been to obtain a heavy crop of tobacco at a minimum of trouble and expense. Millions of pounds of tobacco are grown in South Africa annually, but owing to negligence on the part of the fanners, unsuitable soil, climatic conditions, bad curing, and premature bailing, much of it is worthless.