wished
for is manufactured under the superintendence of a thorough-bred
Virginia tobacco manufacturer--but the impossibility of extracting the
nitre by the heating, or any other process, renders the flavor rank
and disagreeable. Perhaps cheroots, or the lower numbers of cigars,
manufactured from the Australian leaf, might prove more successful.

In Sydney the time for sowing tobacco seed is September, but in Van
Diemen's Land it should be a month later, as tobacco plants cannot
stand the frost. The ground should be made fine, and in narrow beds
three feet wide from path to path, to allow for weeding without
stepping on the beds. The seed, being small, should not be raked in;
but after the ground is raked fine, and perfectly clean, and well
pulverised, mix the seed with wood ashes, and sow over the beds, and
pat in with the spade, or tread in with the naked feet, which is
preferable. The ground should be moist, but not much watered, or it
moulds the plants. When about as large as moderate sized cabbage
plants, they should be put out--three feet or three feet six in the
rows, and five feet apart between the rows. When the plant rises to
about two feet high, it will throw out suckers at each leaf, which
must be carefully taken off with the finger and thumb, and all bottom
and decayed leaves that touch the ground taken off. When the tobacco
plant throws out flower, it must be topped off, leaving about twelve
leaves in the stalk to ripen and come to maturity. When the leaves
feel thick between the finger and thumb, and assume a mottled
appearance, they are fit to cut.

In "Tegg's New South Wales Almanac" it is stated that the end of July
is the usual time for sowing the seed. In order, however, to prevent
the plants from being subsequently destroyed by frost, care must be
taken not to sow the seed until the frost has ceased in any respective
locality (unless raised in a frame). Tobacco requires a rich light
soil, and well manured.

By the instructions for cultivating it, the plant must be three feet
apart each way, which would give 4,840 plants to an acre; assuming
that each plant would yield half a pound for the first crop, this
would give 2,420 lbs. to an acre, which is only 180 lbs. in excess of
a ton. In New South Wales several parties use the tobacco stems for
sheep wash. One pound of tobacco is sufficient to wash five sheep on
an average (one washing), which would give 12,100 sheep to one acre.

Assuming that only