Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-04-07
T obaceo, Growing in London
for Horticultural Hall
Special Correspondence of The Star.


LONDON. March %, 1907.
A LMOST in the heart Of the forest of
n the great and grimy metropolis of
brick and mortar which makes up
the world, an attempt is being made to
raise an elaborate tobacco crop. The sight
would make a Virginian laugh. In method
zeal rows of little red pots on the shelf of
greenhouse at the Royal Botanic Society's
gardens in Regents Park seedlings of no
less than sixteen different varieties Of the
fragrant weed have been carefully nursed
through the late winters fog and cloudi-
ness until they are now all Of an inch above
ground and aspire to become London's first
tobacco crop.
H. F. Halves, head gardener Of the botan-
ical gardens, received the writer cordially.
I've called to see your tobacco crop"
Certainly you may You must not laugh;
our crop as yet consists of seedlings only,
but It represents all the tobacco Of the
world and Is, therefore. unique and inter-
esting. Come this way"
He led me through little village of glass
houses and ushered me into one Of the
smallest ones. In exactly forty-four little
red pots arranged on a broad shelf Of the
greenhouse a mass Of little green shoots
which looked like chick-weed-basked In the
sun. 1t was one Of the first bright days
they had seen since their birth In London,
and after a winters fog and cloudiness
they might well have thought that they had
been transported for day to sunny Vir-
gnia.
Every bacco-growing country in the
world Is represented here" the gardener
explained. 1T may be, quite possibly is. the
first collection Of its sort American tobac-
co, of which all the others are. of course,
descendants. naturally leads. Other seed
lings are from Holland. Belgium. South
Africa. Mexico. South America. Cuba, Phil
ippines and Turkey. A sort Of family re-
union Of the great tobacco family. Sixteen
varieties In all, + believe.
I'VE didn't get the seeds until December.
quite a bit too late. but we hope to get the
plants well up in time for the International
month-Apru 21-2s. 1t is to be held at the
Horticultural Hall in London.
Our object in raising the tobacco Is not
to foster IT'S growth in England. 1t could
be grown in many parts Of the British
Islands-it is grown quite bit In Ireland
but the government Is more or less or
posed to the growing Of tobacco In England
The excise tax on imported tobacco. you
knew, Ia one Of our chief sources of rev.
enue and the government argues that the
raising of our own tobacco would cut off
a part Of the revenue. Yes. 1t Is rather
strange lne oI argument, iof toOaccO falS-
ing would seem to be a valuable addition
to our agricultural pursuits
We are raising these plants only for
exhibition to show the tobacco tradesmen
the various kinds of tobacco plant IA their
growing state. After the exhibition expect
to remove the plants to the open garden
and grow them to maturity
1t seems. by the way. that Sir Water
Raleigh did not, as generally supposed.
bring the first tobacco into England. He
only brought it into repute. Sir Francis
Drake Is to be credited with the first i'm
portation of tobacco from America in 1868.
For more than a century after its intro
ductiOn to the Eastern hemisphere, tobacco
was looked upon a panacea for all ills
and was smoked almost wholly for medic
inal purposes. So far as England is con-
cerned, in fact. the leading incentive to the
increase of the habit was the idea of its
efficacy as a prophylactic against the great
plague of 1855. 1t was said at that time
that none who kept tobacco shops had died
of the plague. Everybody invoked the pro-
lection of tobacco. Men, women and ch:l-
dren learned to smoke At the famous old
Elton school. in truth. smoking was record
ed a part of the curriculum Every
morning after breakfast all the bows had
to smoke whether they wanted to or not az
a safeguard against outbreak of the
plague. Many q whipping Is said to have
been administered to boys who were so
esting to note that things have taken quite
a different turn since the seventeenth CEN
fury, and teachers and parents punish the
boys now because they do smoke.
Probably not per cent of the vast
army of worshipers of the Goddess of Nico-