METHOD OF WORKING. 347- 



the ocean, Pinar del Rio being the principal point in the 

 district. These vegas are found generally on the margins of 

 rivers, or in low, moist localities, their ordinary size being 

 not more than a coballeria, which amounts to about thirty- 

 three acres of our measurement. The half of this is also 

 most frequently devoted to the raising of the vegetable known 

 as iheplatano (banana), which may be said to be the bread of 

 the lower classes. A few other small vegetables are raised. 

 The usual buildings upon such places are a dwelling house, a 

 drying-house, a few sheds for cattle, and perhaps a small 

 whio (hut),or two, made in the rudest manner, for the shelter 

 of the hands, who, upon some of the very largest places 

 number twenty or thirty, though not always negroes for this 

 portion of the labor of the island seems to be performed by 

 the lower classes of whites. Some of the places that are 

 large have a mayoral, as he is called, a man whose business it 

 is to look after the negroes, and direct the agricultural 

 labors; but, as a general thing, the planter, who is not 

 always the owner of the property, but simply the lessee, lives 

 upon, directs, and governs the place. 



" Guided by the results of a long experience transmitted 

 from his ancestors (says a Spanish author), the farmer knows, 

 without being able to explain himself, the means of augment- 

 ing or diminishing the strength or the mildness of the 

 tobacco. His right hand, as if guided by an instinct, foresees 

 what buds it is necessary to take off in order to put a limit to 

 the increase or height, and what amount of trimming is 

 necessary to give a chance to the proper quantity of leaves. 

 But the principal care, and that which occupies him in his 

 waking hours, is the extermination of the voracious insects 

 that persecute the plant. One called cachaga domesticates 

 itself at the foot of the leaves ; the verde, on the under side 

 of the leaves ; the rosquilla, in the heart of the plant ; all of 

 them doing more or less damage. The planter passes entire 

 nights, provided with lights, clearing the buds just opening, 

 of these destructive insects. He has even to carry on a war 

 with still worse enemies, the vivijagnas, a species of large, 

 native ants, that are to the tobacco what the locust is to the 

 wheat. This plague is so great, at times, that prayers and 

 special adoration are offered up to San Marcial to intercede 

 against the plague of ants. 



" The plant, whose original name was cohiba, seems to have 

 been cultivated first by Europeans on the island in the 

 vicinity of Havana. The island of Cuba is without doubt 



