THECUBAREVIEW 19 



Abajo is that from the so-called Vuelta Abajo, of which we have made mention, 

 and the pi'oduct from both these areas is that which is used almost exclusively 

 in the manufacture of the finest grades of pure Havana cigars, the great demand 

 for which comes from the higher class of smokers in the United States, Great 

 Britain and France. Especially has Great Britain shown an appreciation for 

 the cigars made from the product of Vuelta Abajo. The leaf from Semi Vuelta 

 is of a coarser, heavier grade than that just described. It is used in a cheaper class 

 of cigars, and quite frequently is utilized for making \ip a blend. Partidos has 

 been noted especially for its production of wrapper tobacco. At one time many 

 hundreds of acres of red, fine grained soil were covered over with cheese cloth 

 shelters and planted to tobacco for the production of wrappers. The nature of the 

 soil, however, makes irrigation a necessity, and it has been found that in many 

 seasons the burning qualities of the leaf produced by irrigation are not perfect, in 

 some years proving so faulty that the tobacco has been absolutely worthless for high- 

 class cigars. The result has been that the growing of wrapper under cheese cloth 

 in the Partidos district has come to be recognized as a gamble with the cards stacked 

 against one, so that the area planted today is very much smaller than that found five 

 or six years ago. Certain areas, however, in this district are known to always pro- 

 duce tobacco of desirable qualities, so that here the industry continues and is 

 slightly on the increase. In Vuelta Arriba a tobacco is produced which is much 

 heavier and more similar to a natural product than that produced in the three 

 regions which we have just described. No fertilizer except natural fertilizers, and 

 these only to a very small extent, are yet used in the Vuelta Arriba district, as the 

 area adapted to the planting of tobacco is large in comparison with the area actually 

 planted, tobacco here competing with cane, bananas, malangas and other standard 

 Cuban crops, the land being well adapted for the growth of any of these. The 

 product of the vegas of Vuelta Arriba is used very largely as part of the blend of 

 many classes of cigars manufactured throughout the world, the United States, Ger- 

 many, France, Spain and South America taking very large quantities of these goods. 

 The trashier tobaccos are utilized for cigarette manufacture, while the large leaves 

 which are of such size as to be used for wrappers are utilized largely for the wrapping 

 of the ordinary medium grade cigar consumed to such an extent in the country dis- 

 tricts of Cuba. 



A brief description of the soils best adapted to the growth of tobacco in these 

 various districts is not out of place. In true and so-called Vuelta Abajo the soils are 

 almost uniformly sandy, varying from a sandy loam with a very small percentage 

 of clay to almost a pure sand. Of course, the sandy loams are far preferable, and 

 experience has indicated that if eight or ten inches of good sandy loam are underlaid 

 with a moderately permeable clay and that throughout the soil is found small, gravelly 

 particles, the best natural conditions exist for the production of a high grade, aro- 

 matic, silky leaf and excellent wrapper, if weather conditions are favorable during 

 the period of growth of the crop. In the Semi Vuelta district clay loams predomi- 

 nate, though here also isolated areas of sandy loams occur, but the typical soil of 

 the region is a clay loam. The tobacco soils of the Partidos section are entirely 

 distinct from those of the two preceding regions, consisting of level areas of a fine- 

 grained, clay soil, of a bright to a dark red color, and of great depth. These soils 

 lend themselves excellently to cultivation If they are taken at the right degree of 

 moisture, but otherwise are very refractory. They are uniformly porous, so that the 

 rains pass rapidly down through them to great depths, the water level throughout 

 this district being found at depths varying from seventy-five to two hundred feet. 

 As irrigation is essential, the cost of pumping the water required from these depths is, 

 ■of course, great. In the Vuelta Arriba section sandy clay loams prevail. The soils are 

 all heavier than those of the Vuelta Abajo region, in many cases being similar to the 

 clay loamg of S^mi Vuelta, though the color is almost uniformly much darker, m 



