Maiden soil is not recommended.  The ground should be trenched, worked as fine as possible, and well manured.  Tobacco will not answer unless the subsoil is thoroughly broken.  The best manure is that obtained from the bullock-yard, and bark from the tan yard; and by two or three ploughings the earth can be brought to a proper consistency, and fit for the reception of the plants.

The usual method adopted in New South Wales, is to raise the plants in a warm, sheltered bed, neither exposed to wind nor to the sun’s rays; but if the weather is dry, they should be well watered night and morning.  The time of sowing is the end of August or the beginning of September in the latitude of Sydney, according to the state of the weather; and they may be transplanted when they have attained their sixth leaf, which is generally about a month or five weeks after they are up.

The period is rather later in this colony, and care should be taken that the plants have gained sufficient strength in the ground after transplanting to withstand the effect of the hot winds, and, if practicable, the aspect should be either N.E. or N.W., and the rows should incline towards either of these points.

    The most suitable spots in this colony for the cultivation of
    tobacco, are Lyndoch Valley and the districts round the town of
    Willunga and Morphett Vale.

The greatest care is required from the cultivator to prevent the destruction of the plant from its greatest enemy, the black grub.  Daily search should be made for it, and not a plant should be left unexamined; they make their appearance about the beginning of November, when the plants have scarcely had time to take root.  The soil between the rows should be kept constantly stirred with a three-pronged fork, that air and the sun’s rays may be admitted, which latter are as indispensable to the growing plant as injurious to the seedling.  The labor is great, and from first to last requires the constant attention of one man throughout the year, with an additional hand for about six weeks during the process of curing.

The profits even in bad seasons are considerable; but when the season and soil are favorable, they average upwards of 100 per cent.  The consumption of tobacco is great in this colony, not only for personal use, but for sheep-wash; and the profits may be considerably greater for the lower leaves, which, owing to their gritty nature, cannot be manufactured, but may be advantageously cured for wash.

It is not my office to argue the point as to the advantages which may accrue from a free trade in tobacco; but this I know, and confidently assert it, from actual experiments made in this province, that a more lucrative article cannot be grown.

The consumption in South America, in 1850, was 147,178 lbs.; and the
annual increase since 1840 has been a higher percentage than the
increase of population, chiefly owing to extension in sheep-farming.