COLOMBIAN TOBACCO. 395 



long before Kaleigh's " would-be-colonists " sailed for Vir- 

 ginia. The principal varieties grown are Colombian, Carmen, 

 Ambalema, Palmyra, and Giron. Most of these tobaccos 

 are used for cigar purposes, especially the latter. The leaf is 

 fine, of good size, and marked with light yellow spots. 

 Tanning says of the tobacco of Colombia :/ 



" The Cumanacoa, Tobacco de la Cueva, de los Misones, de 

 la Laguna de Valencia cura seca and Cai/aco, de la Lagunade 

 Valencia cura negro, de Oriluca, de Varinos cura seca, de 

 Casovare, de Baylodores, de Kio Negro en Andull, are equal 

 to the tobacco of the Brazils. The tobacco of the Cueva, in 

 the department of Cumana, is said to be grown from the 

 excrements of certain birds deposited by them in a cavity, 

 from which the natives extract it : it is considered the finest 

 tobacco in Colombia. The birds are a species of the owl. 



" The natives of Varinos, and in fact of the whole kingdom, 

 chew a substance called chimo, which is made of a jelly, by 

 boiling the Varinos tobacco, and afterwards mixed with an 

 alkali called hurado, which is found in a lake near Merida. 

 Both are an estanco of government, and produce a large 

 annual income. The mode of cultivating the above tobacco 

 by the natives is as follows : They prepare a small bed, 

 sifting the earth very fine, on which they sow the seed, and 

 then cover it with plantain leaves for some days. As soon as 

 the plants make their appearance, they raise the leaves 

 about two feet, so as to give the plants free air, and to allow 

 them sooner to grow strong. When they become large 

 enough to transplant, they have the land prepared ; and as 

 Boon as the rainy season sets in, they plant out their young 

 plants, taking great care to protect them from the sun, and 

 to keep them clean as they grow up, as well as to prevent the 

 worms from destroying or eating the leaves. When the leaf 

 is ripe, it gets yellow spots on it ; and on bending the leaf it 

 cracks. Then it is fit for pulling off, which is done, and 

 the leaves are neatly packed in handsful, placed in a dry 

 situation, and occasionally shifted from one place to another. 

 When the leaves are well dried they are all packed closely, 

 and well covered, to keep the flavor in. 



" The leaf is left in this state for one or two months, and 

 then made up for use. They never top their tobacco, and 

 the leaves never ripen together. The mode adopted by the 

 North American planters is somewhat different ; they top 

 their plants when they have eight full leaves, or they keep it 



