382 TOBACCO LEAF. 



The famous Havana tobacco of Cuba will probably 

 be produced on a much larger scale, and of even finer 

 quality, when a stable government has been established 

 in that island, that will encourage enterprise and thrift. 

 The attractive qualities of the best grades of Havana 

 leaf, especially from Vuelta de Abajo, are due more to 

 the peculiar climate and soil of that region than to 

 methods of culture. These are still crude in the ex- 

 treme, owing to the natural indolence of the Creole 

 planters. The best lands are flooded during the rainy 

 season, and when the waters recede, a deposit of rich 

 alluvium is left, but the rainfall is so uncertain, and 

 irrigation not being practiced, that only one extra-prime 

 crop can be counted on every five years, although one or 

 two medium good crops may be obtained in the interval. 

 Even where efforts have been made to produce larger 

 crops by the use of manures or fertilizers, the work has 

 not been done with judgment, and in some instances the 

 burn and other qualities have been injuriously affected, 

 not so much because of the plant food, as of the igno- 

 rance in its use. It is very evident that the quantity of 

 leaf produced on the island of Cuba can be enormously 

 extended, and probably its quality improved, by the ap- 

 plication of intelligence, brains and energy. This fact 

 must also be borne in mind, in considering the future of 

 the cigar-leaf crop of the United States. 



On the island of Sumatra, however, cigar-wrapper 

 tobacco culture has been reduced to a science, being con- 

 trolled mainly by a* few Dutch syndicates. Latterly, 

 however, these people have tried to "kill the goose 

 that lays the golden egg," by forcing a large yield 

 through improper fertilization, not realizing the judg- 

 ment that must be employed in artificially feeding this 

 delicate plant. In 1895, there were 26 stock companies 

 and 21 private plantations engaged in the industry on 

 the east coast. The rapidity with which the industry 



