Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1886-09-15
Tobacco Growing IN England

FROM the Baltimore sun.
The last number of BrUiy'recrs has an in
teresting communication from its agricultural
correspondent on hesuhiect Of tobacco grow
ing in England. 1t is well known that ever
since 1862 the cultivation Of tobacco has been
prohibited in England, although It was grown
in small quantities in Ireland up to 1850,
when its cultivation was prohibited there also
and all existing plantations destroyed. For
more than two centuries tobacco has formed
one of the principal sources OF British revenue,
nearly two.thirds OF which are drawn from
the customs duties and interua! revenue
taxes on tobacco and malt and spirituOus
liquors. But the pressure put upon the gov
ernment with resi- peCt 10 the heavy burden
borne by the people from the duties imposed
on leaf tobacco and the licenses to manutac-
ture and sell tie same has been so great that
Parliament finally agreed to allow certain
responsible persons TO grow small quantities
OF tobacco ON areas not exceeding one acre,
to test the assertion that tobacco can be
protitably grown in England. The most nota-
BILE experiment has been made this year
upon an acre of fair soil near Bromley, a
town about eight miles from London, where
a firm OF seedsmen has devoted an acre of
fair soil to the experiment. Seventeen vari-
eties have been planted in rows to ascertain
which kind will best succeed in the variable
English climate. The object is to know
which kind will mature earliest The plants
grown from Havana, Maryland, Virginia and
Florida seed have shown most promise in the
order in which they are named, aud up to
August n were doing well, "but az tho crop
has to be cut by the second week in Septem-
ber, lest it should be spOilt by an early frost,
it is doubtful" we are told, 'whether even
the earliest plants will he suttic iciently matured
to produce a tolerable sample of tobacco"
Nothing but the great agricultural distress
prevailing throughout England from the
inability OF the farmers to compete success
iully with the introduction of foreign grain,
breadstutis' and provisions would have in
ducedlFhe government authorize the experi-
ment 10 be. made, in view of the enormous
loss OF revenue that would ensue in the event
of abolishing the prOhibitOry laws in rela-
tions to the cultivation of tobacco, and it will
therefore probably feel a sense of relief If the
report OF the Bromley experiments should
be unfavorable. Yet, as tobacco was as at
one time grown successfully in England, and
as its cultivation was carried on in Ireland
no climatic reason why, with proper
still be successfully grown in the south OF
Ireland aud in the southern English counties.
considerable quantity OF tobacco is grown in
Germany and France under conditions no
more favorable than the climate TO England
would present, but as those governm ents
have a monopoly of the sale OF all tobacco of
home growth as well as that imported, and
as they can fix the prlce of tobacco at any
point required by the necessities OF revenue
they are not affected as the English govern
ment would be, unless, like them, 1t declared
tobacco TO be monopoly and became the
sole source"oi supply, and, like them, taxed
the native grower on the value OF his pro-
duct