_Africa._—The tobacco-plant extends throughout Central and East Africa, wherever the equinoctial rains fall. It is cultivated to some extent in the Bondei of Usambara, but seems to be the special product of the Handei district, whence considerable quantities are sent to Pangani for export. Usambara also exports to Zanzibar stiff, thin, round cakes, which have been pounded in wooden mortars, and neatly packed in plaintain-leaves. It is dark and well-flavoured. The Cape of Good Hope, in 1865, had 933 _morgen_ (of 2·116 acres) under tobacco, yielding 1,632,746 lb.; in 1875, 1243 _morgen_ afforded 3,060,241 lb. Tobacco is grown considerably in Oudtshorn and other districts of the Cape Colony, and on the warmer farms in the Transvaal, but to the greatest extent on the coast. The supply is already sufficient for local demands, and tobacco promises to become a staple of South African agricultural industry. A recent writer on this portion of the British colonies says, “tobacco, though cultivated as an article of commerce for export, has not met with much success, as the passion for the weed has become deeply rooted in the natives of the coast and interior, so that it is cultivated by them in many parts of the province for their own consumption, and forms a regular article of sale and barter amongst themselves.” The tobacco leaf is dried very carelessly by the natives, and is made up in a peculiar way, as follows:—It is first plaited, and when the plait has reached a length of 3–4 feet, it is wound up in the form of a spiral. Gradually drying in this shape, it preserves its form without any binding, and it is unwound and cut off in short pieces when required for use or sale. This mode of preparation is invariable among the Makua and Yao, between the Roouma and Zambesi. Consul O’Neill says that “were the natives instructed in some simple method of drying and pressing the leaf, the valuable product would be probably brought down by them in considerable quantities, affording, as it would do, a larger margin for profit than does the culture of oil seeds, and it might become a regular article of colonial manufacture and export.”