Evening star., 1924-10-04

Now they are smoking the pipe OF
peace in Europe and Gen. Dawes Is
making his pipe famous, just What
is it they put in these pipes. as the
American Indians did hundreds of
wears ago? Just what is the process
that produces those Christmas cigars
the wife selects for you? When Co
lumbuS chanCed upon the New World
he found that there prevallea
strange custom of smoking. In pipes
or in rolls of leaves, the natives were
putting to curious use plant Which
they had greatly developed and which
bore relation to the tomato, potato,
eggplant and jimson weed.
Other explorers landing in Mexico
and in Central America found this
odd practice, and Cartier discovered
the northern Indians drying the
leaves of the plant in the sun, says
bulletin of the American Nature AS
sociation of Washington. In Haiti
fhe natives used d tube for smoking
and taking snuff, calling 1t by the
native name of "tabaco" and giving
the Standards the word that is now
written with only slight variation in
nearly every language.
Typical of America.
Tobacco, then, is practically Ameri-
can Whether or not tniS was
benefit to mankind is often debated,
particularly around New Year day,
but in any event tobacco ranks high
among the gifts of nature that man
has cultivated with an economic
profit.
Taking it's common name from
handy word in the Haitian tongue, to-
bacco adopted it's plant name from
European source. Threvet, the French
explorer had found the plant in
Brazil taking it to France in 1856.
1t failed to arouse much enthusiasm
until one day Jean Nicot, the French
Amba ssador at the court of Portugal,
distinguished his diplomatic career
by making the use of tobacco the
vogue in court circles. He also made
his family name immortal, for to-
bacco is known in scientific circles
under the name Nicotiana Tabacum.
Tobacco was not cultivated in
Europe until the early seventeenth
century From then on it's popular
ity increased and it's growing ex-
tended to several Asiatic countries.
Crop i'm Virginia by 1919.
In America, John Rolfe of the colony
at Jamestown, Va, had brought some
West Indian tobacco seed for culti
vation. BY 1919 he had a crop large
enough for shipment of 10000
pounds to England, the foundation of
an immense agriculture and trade.
Maryland was the next colony to
carry on the extensive culture of to-
bacco. The Revolution found these
two early tobacco-producing centers
with an annual export of about one
hundred thousand pounds. The war
over, this crop came to have a more
widespread economic Importance in
the new country: It's production
spread with settlement until today it
is an important crob in fifteen States,
the most westerly of which is Wis
consin. According to Nature Maga-
zine, the associations publication,
more than one billion pounds a year
are produced in the United States.
Tobacco can be grown with success
in climates ranging from that of the
south of Canada to the heat of the
tropics. 1t is sensitive as plant,
however. Climate and soil govern its
quality and quantity perhaps more
than they do any other field crop.
Varies With Climates.
Tobacco has local and sectional
characteristics. While most of the
commercially important tobaccos are
descended from one parent plant-a
coarse and luxuriantly growing spe-
cies of from three to six feet in
height, with large leaves-there are
many varieties and subvarieties with
descriptive and interesting names.
They vary in the size, texture and
numbers of their leaves. In tobacco
growing and manufacturing circles
they are usually known for their use,
whether they are to be made into
cigars, to be exported or to be manu-
factured into various kinds of to-
bacco.
Leaves of the plant are fixed alter
nately on the main stalk and they
range from egg-shape to lance-like
Some have wavy margins. The mid
rib of the leaf may be heavy and
prominent in one kind, and weak and
inconspicuous in other varieties. In
still others the base of the leaf joins
the stalk. Little open cells, the lungs
of the plant, occur on both sides of
the leaves. and the green parts of the