A long and interesting article on tobacco-growing in Ireland appears
in Monday's Times. The history of the experiment, begun three hundred years ago, proscribed from the reign of Charles II. till 1799, and again from 1831 till 1898, is a remarkable object-lesson in Colonial Preference. Tobacco-growing in these islands was originally pro- hibited in order to give the greatest possible preference to Colonial tobacco. The prohibition was later main- tained in the interests of the Exchequer. In 1898 Colonel Everard obtained leave for a small experiment on his estate in County Meath, which has now grown into a considerable plantation at Randlestown, where tobacco-growing is scien- tifically carried on with most satisfactory results. The industry has hardly emerged from its experimental phase, but the obstacles in the way of its establishment on a sound com- mercial footing are 'clearly fiscal rather than climatic. It is admitted by experts that it is possible to grow in Ireland several classes of "merchantable" tobacco, which compare most favourably with the average Kentucky crop.
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