152 TOBACCO. 



supervision, and to numerous stringent regulations con- 

 cerning details as to the prohibition to sow any other seed 

 than that furnished to him by the administration, the 

 mode of planting, &c. ; and, in addition to the surveillance 

 as to these matters, two official inventories are taken of 

 the growing crop the first to ascertain the extent of land 

 under cultivation and the number of plants, the second to 

 determine the number of leaves for which the planter 

 will be held accountable. When the tobacco has been 

 gathered in a manner described by regulations of minute 

 detail, the planter takes it to the magazine of the 

 Regie, where it is subjected to the inspection of a 

 commission of five disinterested experts, who separate the 

 leaves into three portions, according to quality; the 

 planter is then paid for each portion in accordance with 

 the tariff of prices promulgated by the Minister of 

 Finance. Foreign tobacco is obtained through contract 

 with private parties, after published proposals by the 

 Minister of Finance through the French Consular Corps 

 abroad, and through a special government agency estab- 

 lished at Havana. At present a little over one-third of 

 the tobacco purchased by the Regie is of French 

 growth; over one-half consists of foreign leaf, mostly 

 obtained from the United States, and the remainder is 

 made up by importations of cigars from Havana and 

 Manilla, and by cigarettes and miscellaneous productions 

 of various countries, and by custom-house seizures. The 

 magazines distributed throughout the country are of two 

 sorts, " magasins de transit " for foreign tobacco, and 

 "magasins de culture" for indigenous tobacco. In the 

 " magasins de transit " the foreign leaves have not to 



