TOBACCO.
When Benzoni, a Spanish explorer, wrote of his travels in Mexico, about the middle of the six teenth century, he described plantations of an herb the natives called "tabacco," the leaf of which was dried and smoked in a pipe. Earlier in the same century, the islands off to the south east of Florida were explored by the followers of Columbus, and here tobacco was seen first by civilized men. The natives dried the leaves, then made a little bonfire of them in an open vessel, and sat down before it to inhale the smoke, which gave them a pleasant sensation of physical com fort. The tool they used was a hollow tube that branched near one end. One arm of the Y was inserted in each nostril, and the other end of the "pipe" was held where it caught the smoke, close to the smouldering leaves.
The North American Indians used a pipe much like those we see to-day, and inhaled the smoke through the mouth. The Y-shaped pipe, first seen on the island of San Domingo, was called " tabaco." So there is little doubt that this funny little nose-pipe gave its name to the plant, which has spread from its native land, America, to the principal countries of the Old World.
Of course the Spaniards tried the novelty, and soon learned to like the taste and smell of the narcotic plant. They introduced it in Spain, and the French ambassador to Spain took a plant home with him, and presented it to the king and queen. Other plants were sent by him to set out in the royal gardens in Paris, where the great reputation of the newcomer rested on its medici nal properties. Famous Spanish physicians had hailed the tobacco plant as a cure for many diseases, and it was called "the holy herb," and "herba panacea," the cure-all.
The name of Nicot, the ambassador to Spain, was given to the tobacco plant by the botanist Linnmus, who named it Nicotiana Tabacum. The drug, nicotine, contained in the sap of the whole plant, is very poisonous. It must be remem bered that tobacco belongs in the Nightshade Family, which has a number of poisonous plants in it.
Fifty different plants of the genus Nicotiana are known. The tobacco of the world comes chiefly from varieties of the single species, which was carried from America to Europe, and thence spread to the other parts of the world where the plant is a commercial crop. Some of the best of foreign tobaccos are from seed of varieties developed in sections of the United States.
Tobacco is a tall, broad-leaved plant, with a central stalk that bears, at maturity, a branching, loose cluster of pink or rose-colored flowers, with funnel-shaped corollas, each drawn out into five points. The seeds are so small that a great number are packed into the pod that matures in the clasp ing, green calyx at the base of the funnel. An ounce contains over 300,000 seeds! But a small proportion of them are able to sprout, and those which are "viable" have such hard shells that the little plants have the hardest work to get out. It is a common practice to rub the seeds gently in the hands with powdered emery to bruise the coat and thus ease the sprouting process.
The seedlings are raised in a specially prepared seed bed, and transplanted to the field when about four to six inches high. They are set, by good growers, three or four feet apart, so that the culti vator can run through between the rows in both directions. Clean culture, but shallow, kills the weeds and saves the soil moisture for the feeding roots. When the top is about to blossom it is removed to throw the energies of the plant into leaf-making. Side shoots are removed as they appear, for the same reason. When the leaves are sticky, and show yellow when held before the sun, they are ready to harvest. They break easily when bent.
Harvesting methods differ, but the operations include cutting, drying, sweating, and packing the leaves. Kentucky harvests a tremendous crop, the biggest of all the tobacco states. Wisconsin and Massachusetts are the northernmost tobacco states. Florida grows special grades of fine, to bacco. So does Connecticut. Louisiana grows a famous kind.