The value of good tobacco in the district of Masulipatam is from 10 to 15 rupees a candy of 500 lbs., or about id. per lb. The best Lanka tobacco is from the Sitanagram island near Gutala, on the Godavery, and is sold usually at 40 rupees a candy on the spot.
The seeds of all the species, Havannah, 3fary land, Virginia, Manilla, Shimz, etc., have been widely distributed, and with .somo success, and the produce was largely analyzed by Mr. Brough ton. In 1871-72 it was exported to the value of lakhs of rupees. The paucity in the soils of Madras of carbonate of potash prevents the tobacco plants obtain ing sufficient of that substance. The ashes of the American tobaccos contain from 25 to 35 per cent. of it.
Ceylon. —Tobacco is cultivated with acme attention and success by the Singhalese of the western province, the Kandyans of the interior, and tlto Tamils of the northern districts of the island. In 1760, Ceylon produced a considerable quantity of tobacco, principally about Jaffna, a demand having sprung up for it in Travancore and on the Malay coast. The cultivation spread to other districts of the island, Negombo, Chilaw, and 3futtra. Not long after the possession of the island by the British, a monopoly was created by an import duty of 25 per cent. ad valorem, and in 1811 the growers were compelled to deliver their tobacco into the Government stores at certain fixed rates. The culture and demand thereupon decreased. In 1843, the duty on the exports of tobacco from Ceylon amounted to 18386.
In Bengal, the Surat., Bhilsa, and Sandoway (Arakan) varieties of tobacco are the most cele brated. The two first are found to be good for cultivation in the districts about Calcutta. That of Singour, in Barclwan, near Chandarnagar, sells at the price of the Arakan sort, though of the same species as that cultivated in the surrounding country; and the best Bengal tobacco is grown. at and abont Hanglee, in the Kishnagar district. The tobacco of Chunar, on the Ganges, and more especially that of Bhilsa, were celebrated through out India.
In 1871-72, above 500,000 acres were under tobacco cultivation, chiefly in the districts of Rangpur, Tirhut, Purniah, and Koch-Bahar, and nearly 10,104,000 lbs. were exported, chiefly to Bombay. The farmers of Koch-Bahar trust mainly to their tobacco for the money for their rents, and in the Terai it flourishes in great abundance ; the soil of the Terai is very favourable. It is grown in clearances made in the jungle by the cowherd races who graze buffaloes. They collect the dung on the clearance, and after a year bring it under cultivation. In the cultivation of the Bhilsa tobacco, irnmense quantities of manure are used, with much wood-ashes.
Arakan tobacco, grown at Sandoway, was brought to London, and was valued at from 6d. to 8d. a pound. Some very superior tobacco, which obtained the name of Martaban tobacco, was shown by Dr. N. Wallich to be from Arakan, and not from Martaban. He described it as having a fine silky leaf. Many people pro nounced it the very best they had ever tasted, surpassing the finest imported from Turkey and Persia. An extensive tobacconist said : A finer
and better-flavoured tobacco he never saw or tasted in his life.' One of the first brokers in the city said : The sample of leaf tobacco is certainly of a very fine quality, and appears to have been produced from some peculiar seed and a greatly unproved cultivation and cure.' By many manu facturers it was supposed to be from the seed of Havannah or St. Domingo tobacco. For smoking, it was compared with Maryland tobacco, having the same qualities, except the flavour, which is better, and more like Havannah. The colour and leaf, moreover, were pronounced excellent for cigar-making ; but for that purpose the largeness of the principal stalk, and coarseness of the small fibres in the leaf, somewhat detracted from its value.
Tenasserim tobacco is used in Burma. The Karens raise it for their own consumption, and the Burmese both cultivate it and import it. In 1884 the Burmese are cultivating largely.
In the Philippines very fine tobacco is grown and the Manilla cheroots are celebrated all over the globe. The quantity of raw tobaceo shipped from Manilla in 1847 was 92,106 arrobas, each about a quarter of a cwt.; manufactured tobacco, 12,054 arrobas ; and 1933 cases of cigars. 5220 boxes of cigars were shipped from Manilla in 1841, 73,439 millions of cigars were shipped in 1850, and 42,629 quintals of leaf tobacco. The manufacture of cigars in Manilla is a monopoly of the Government of the closest description. The cheroot which now costs, free of duty, about one halfpenny, could be tendered for half that sum. The flavour of Manilla cheroots is peculiar to themselves, being quite different froin that made of any other sort of tobacco,—the greatest cha racteristic probably being its slightly soporific tendency, which has caused many persons in the habit of using it to imagine that opium is em ployed in the preparatory treatinent of the tobacco, which, however, is not the case. The cigars are made up by the hands of wonien large rooms of the factory, each of them contain ing from 800 to 1000 souls. These are all seated or squatted, Indian-like, on their haunches, upon the floor, round tables, at each of which there is an old woman presiding to keep the young ones in order, about a dozen of them being the com plement of a table. All of them are supplied with a certain weight of tobacco, of the first, second, or third qualities used in composing a cigar, and are obliged to account for a propor tionate number of cheroots, the weight and size of which are by these means kept equal. As they use stones for beating out the leaf on the wooden tables beforo which they are seated, the noise produced by them while making them up is deafening. The workers earn from six to ten dollars a month for their labour ; and as that amount is amply sufficient to provide them with all their comforts, and to leave a large balance for their expenses and dress, etc., they are seldom very constant labourers, and never enter .the factory on Sundays, or, at least, on as great an annual number of feast days as there are Sundays in a year.