10 TOBACCO CULTURE IN THE WEST INDIES 
TOBACCO SOILS 
There are several varieties of soil on which good grades 
of tobacco are produced and the tobacco from apparent- 
ly different soils may often be so similar that it cannot 
be properly classified, even by experts. The distinctions 
in types cannot be judgued by the eye nor even by labora- 
tory test but only by the class of tobacco which each soil 
produces. 
The best tobacco soils in the West Indies are light well 
drained loams, that is soils containing considerable sand 
mixed with some clay and humus. A soil containing a 
great deal of clay and only a small amount of sand and 
gravel is not well suited for cigar filler and even soils con- 
taining moderate amounts of clay only, often produce a 
very coarse tobacco unless treated with large amounts of 
vegetable matter, such as stable manure. 
The famous Vuelta Abajo tobacco grown in the Pinar 
del Rio Province of Cuba is usually graded according to 
the field in which it grew and buyers make a distinction 
between the tobacco from each separate field. Many fields 
have produced tobacco for years and as the cultivation 
and fertilization is about the same each year the grade 
from year to year varies according to the climatic influen- 
ces only. The land in that district is rolling and the ridges 
called cuchillos, (knives), are the fields producing the 
better grades. Not all of the ridges however, produce good 
tobacco, it depends on the soil formation. The soils on these 
ridges are generally light loam mixed with small pieces 
of broken rock. If this rock is a white or light colored 
quartz it is safe to say that the soil is some of the very best 
