Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1897-10-22
TOBACCO IN AUSTRALIA.
Our Farmers to Have Competitors in the
AntipOdes

AntipOdes
Australia has at last set about MAX
ing a serious effort to cultivate to-
bacco For 30 years or more the
weed has been grown in limited areas
in New South Wales, Queensland and
Victoria, but it can scarcely be said
to have been cultivated. Not at any
stage has the industry been backed by
scientific knowledge; at least, not un-
til experts were sent over from this
country. Victoria secured the serv-
ices Of Mr.. Bondurant, Kentuckian,
if we mistake not, and New South
Wales those Of Mr.. Howell, also from
the south. The former has been at
the antipodes for two or three years,
and the latter only a few months.
Sufficient, however, has been done by
Mr.. Bondurant in Victoria to demon
strate that a good marketable article
can be grown there, and that in fu-
ture tobacco will figure much more
prominently in the list of Australian
exports than was thought likely a few
years back 1t was the success which
attended the efforts of Mr.. Bondurant
as practical instructor that induced
the government of New South Wales
to follow Victoria's lead and also turn
to the states for a scientific teacher.
And now we learn that the agricul-
tural department of Queensland is
assisting its growers by importing the
best American seed procurable. The
expert, it is presumed, will follow in
due course.
There is no doubt whatever that
tobacco can be proftably grown in
all the Australian colonies. The
product may never rival Vuelta Aba
jo-not even equal that of our New
England states; but the fact that the
governments have decided to push
the enterprise for all that it is worth
means that tobacco in large quantities
will eventually be produced and
placed on the markets Of Europe. The
latest reports from Victoria place the
new crop at $50 tons, but the average
annual yield has been double that for
some years past. The great drought
that afflicted Australasia in the latter
part of 1896 accounts for the falling
off. Just what percentage of these
$50 tons will be shipped abroad is not
stated, but a fair quantity is destined
for London and Liverpool-as sam
pie shipments only, be it understood.
The tobacco is probably on its way to
Europe at this moment, for the report
under review was written in June.
The leaf was then being treated for
shipment, but it was thought some
little time would be consumed in get
ting it ready. 1t will be packed much
the same as are our southern tobaccos.
From this report, however, we
learn that the government expert is
very well pleased with the results at
tanned at the experimental farm at
Ed, where he planted a large number
of varieties of plug and cigar leaf
tobacco. Mr.. Bondurant's chief OBJ
ject has been to determine what va
rieties of leaf were best adapted to
Victorian soil and climate; and this,
it is claimed, he has done. Next sea-
son a larger crop is to be set out, and
should that prove a commercial sue
cess the tobacco-raising industry will
be fairly launched. In all human
probability it will be years before Aus
tralia becomes a competitor of ours
in this field; but once it has been
proved that tobacco is a profitable
crop to grow, and the farmers have
learned to handle it, then we may
have to bestir Observation-Disclosures
Leaf.