436 SEASON IN MEXICO AND PERSIA. 



sheltered from the spring frosts, a circumstance to which a 

 planter should always be attentive in selecting his plant patch,) 

 to shoot forward in sufficient strength to bear the vicissitude 

 of transplantation. 



" They are supposed to be equal to meet the imposition of 

 this task, when the leaves are about the size of a dollar ; but 

 this is more generally the minor magnitude of the leaves ; and 

 some will be of course about three or four times that medium 

 dimension. Thus, when a good shower or season happens 

 at this period of the year, and the field and plants are equally 

 ready for the intended union, the planter hurries to the plant 

 bed, disregarding the teeming element, which is doomed to 

 wet his skin, from the view of a bountiful harvest, and hav- 

 ing carefully drawn the largest sizable plants, he proceeds 

 to the next operation, (that) of planting. 



" The office of planting the tobacco, is performed by two 

 or more persons, in the following manner : The first person 

 bears, suspended upon one arm, a large basket full of the 

 plants, which have just been drawn and brought from the 

 plant bed to the field, without waiting for an intermission of 

 the shower, although it should rain ever so heavily ; such an 

 opportunity indeed, instead of being shunned, is eagerly 

 sought after, and is considered to be the sure and certain 

 means of laying a good foundation, which cherishes the hope 

 of a bounteous return. The person who bears the basket, 

 proceeds thus by rows from hill to hill ; and upon each hill 

 he takes care to drop one of his plants. Those who follow 

 make a hole in the center of each hill with their fingers, and 

 having adjusted the tobacco plant in its natural position, 

 they knead the earth round the root with their hands, until 

 it is of a sufficient consistency to sustain the plant against 

 wind and weather. In this condition they leave the field for 

 a few days, until the plants shall have formed their radifica- 

 tions ; and where any of them shall have casually perished, 

 the ground is followed over again by successive replantings, 

 until the crop is rendered complete." 



In tropical regions, the plants are transplanted as well in 

 summer and fall as in the spring, but more frequently in the 

 early autumn. In Mexico, transplanting is performed from 

 August till November. In Persia, the tobacco plants are 

 " transplanted on the tops of ridges in a ground trenched so as 

 to retain water. When the plants are thirty to forty inches 

 high, the leaves vary from three to fifteen inches in length, 



