CURING THE CROP. 379 



and which is less costly and quicker than simple weeding 

 with the mattock. 



When the leaves are ripe they are stripped from the stalks 

 and separated into three classes, according to their size, and 

 after wards, made into bunches of fifty or a hundred, by 

 passing through them, near the foot, a little bamboo cane, as 

 if it was a skewer, by which the bunches are afterwards 

 hung up to dry in vast sheds, into which the sun's rays 

 cannot enter, but in which the air circulates freely ; they are 

 left to hang there until they become quite dry, and for this, 

 a greater or less time is required, according to the state of 

 the weather. When the drying is effected the leaves are 

 placed according to their quality, in bales of twenty-five 

 pounds, and in that state they are handed over to the adminis- 

 tration of the monopoly. Gironiere in describing the mode 

 of culture on the tobacco plantations says : 



" During the first two months after the transplanting it is 

 indispensably necessary to give four ploughings to the ground 

 between the rows of the plants, and every fifteen days to 

 handpick, or even better, to root out with the mattock, all 

 the weeds which cannot be touched by the plough. These 

 four ploughings ought to be done in such a manner as to 

 leave alternately a furrow in the middle of each line, and on 

 the sides, and consequently, at the last ploughing, the earth 

 covers the plants up to their first leaves, leaving a trench for 

 carrying off all water that may accumulate during the heavy 

 rains. As soon as each plant has gained a proper height, its 

 head is lopped off to force the sap to turn into the leaves, and, 

 in a few weeks afterwards, it is fit for being gathered." 



The tobacco fields or plantations are very large, and 

 together with the vast sheds for curing, the fields present a 

 beautiful appearance ; the long straight rows with their dark 

 green leaves adding not a little to the beauty and variety of 

 the landscape. The great growers of the plant are very 

 careful in cultivating the fields and give the tobacco frequent 

 hoeings, until ready to be gathered and taken to the sheds. 

 The planters are obliged to take the utmost pains, as the 

 product is obliged to be given up to the monopolizing gov- 

 ernment which is the sole purchaser, and which, in its great 



