378 CULTIVATION. 



quality of Manilla tobacco. That grown in the Visayos is of 

 an inferior quality, and is sold to merchants holding a permit 

 to purchase at the shipping ports and transport to Manilla for 

 sale to the government. In the island of Luzon, the greatest 

 quantity of tobacco is cultivated in the provinces of Nueva 

 Ecija and Cagavan. 



Tomlinson in an account of the tobacco of the Philippines 

 says : " Manilla leaf comes from the three principal districts 

 of the island of Luzon Yisayos, Ygarotes and Cagayan," 

 The mode of cultivation does not differ in any great respect 

 from that followed in other parts of the world. Great seed 

 beds are made on the plantations where the plants are grown 

 until ready to transplant in the tobacco ground. Unlike 

 most land adapted for tobacco, large crops are grown without 

 the aid of any fertilizer whatever. In cultivating the plants, 

 buffaloes are used, yoked one after the other, going between 

 the rows several times, and at the last ploughing leaving a 

 trench in the middle of the rows, for letting off the water. 

 The Indian plow used in cultivating is exceedingly simple : 

 it is composed of four pieces of wood which the most unhandy 



TOBACCO PLOW. 



ploughman can put together, with the mould board and share, 

 which are of cast iron. The lightness and simplicity of this 

 plough render it easy to be used in every kind of cultivation, 

 where the plantations are divided into rows, such as those of 

 tobacco, maize and sugar cane. It is used with great advan- 

 tage, not only for cutting down weeds, but also for giving to 

 row a ploughing, which is serviceable to the plantation, 



