low esteem. Steady efforts are being made by the
cultivators to improve the quality of the produce, and with
every prospect of success, many places in the colonies being
well adapted for the growth of the plant. Colonel De Coin
says Australia is capable of producing very good qualities.
Tobacco has hitherto been grown upon alluvial lands, but a
preference is evinced for lands somewhat less rich but free
from floods. Alluvial land gives a larger crop per acre, but
the flavor is ranker. In 1872 there were 567 acres under
tobacco in New South Wales. The average produce of the
colonies is about 1,300 pounds to the acre. The amount of
produce varied from 976 pounds to the acre in New South
Wales to 2,016 in Tasmania, the climate of this island being
moister and more favorable for tobacco than that of the
other colonies. Manilla and Havana tobacco has been grown
with great success for seed for many years at the Adelaide
Botanic Gardens, and the seed raised has been largely
distributed."

The Australian growers may demonstrate the fact that as good or better
Manilla tobacco can be grown by them than in the Philippine islands.
If the leaf will burn freely, and leave a white, firm ash, the product
will no doubt prove a rival of the leaf grown in Luzon. From the
composition of the soil, it is hardly probable that Havana tobacco
can be grown to perfection; it may, however, resemble in some measure
the Cuban leaf. The climate has much to do with the flavor of tobacco;
more than with the size of the plants or the color of the leaf. Cuba
in this respect has a decided advantage over Australia; and Havana
tobacco will hardly find a rival in Australian leaf, though grown on
the finest soil, and given the most thorough care.

[Illustration: Tobacco field in Algiers.]

So extensive is the cultivation of the tobacco plant, that even the
Arab cultivates it in the burning desert. In Algiers it is an
important product; and through the efforts and encouragement of the
French government its cultivation is assuming large dimensions. Some
portions of Algiers seem to be well adapted for tobacco, the finest of
which is equal to any obtained from America; but a large portion of
the product from that province is of poor quality. It is a favorite
plant with the Arab, and his attention seems to be about equally
divided between his tobacco and his camels. The plant