ts cultivation. In the history of the Dutch colonies in
the Indies it plays an important part. Tobacco began to be cultivated
in Holland about Amersfoot in 1615, and from that time until now, its
culture has increased until it has become one of the greatest of
agricultural products of the country. The plant is grown in the
Veluive (the valley of Guelderland), where the soil is particularly
adapted for the rich snuff-leaf which is manufactured from Amersfoot
tobacco. The Dutch, like the Germans, are excellent cultivators of
tobacco, selecting the richest and the strongest land, and working the
fields of as fine a tilth as possible. The plants do not grow as
rapidly as in America, as they are transplanted into the fields in
May, and are not harvested until the latter part of September or
beginning of October. The plants attain good size--larger than most
of the tobacco of Europe, and a tobacco field in Holland compares
favorably with any in this country. The color of the plants while
growing, is a dark rich green, and they are of a uniform size,
maturing slowly but thoroughly. Connor says of Amersfoot tobacco:
"This tobacco is much esteemed, the fineness of the leaf and its
freedom from fibres fitting it for cigar-wrappers."

[Illustration: Dutch planters.]

The Dutch planters of tobacco are among the happiest cultivators of
the plant in Europe, if not in the world, and unlike the renowned Van
Twiller never "have any doubts about the matter," and believe that
tobacco is absolutely necessary to sustain life. After the evening
meal the planter lights his pipe or calls upon the good dominie, to
have a social chat, discoursing over their favorite beverage the
virtues of two great luxuries. Oftener, however, he passes his
evenings at the village inn, where, surrounded by other comrades, he
discourses as follows of his favorite plant,--tabak:

"That the smoking of tobacco is of infinite benefit, no one
who is impartial and unprejudiced can deny. In a country
like Holland, where the atmosphere is always laden with
heavy and hurtful particles, and where, while people
breathe that atmosphere from above, they feel themselves not
less affected from below by the cold, moist, swampy
soil--the smoking and the chewing of tobacco are the
wholesome prophylactics of which we can make use. To the
Indians and the Negroes, tobacco is almost the only solace
in this transient life. They lear