CURING THE CROP, 879 
and which is less costly and quicker than simple weeding 
with the mattock.. 
When the leaves are ripe they are stripped from the stalks 
and separated into three classes, according to their size, and 
afterwards made into bunches of fifty or a hundred, by 
passing through them, near the foot, a little bamboo cane, as 
if it was a skewer, by which the bunches are afterwards 
hung up to dry in vast sheds, into which the sun’s rays 
cannot enter, but in which the air circulates freely ; they are 
left to hang there until they become quite dry, and for this, 
a greater or less time is required, according to the state of 
the weather. When the drying is effected the leaves are 
placed according to their quality, in bales of twenty-five 
pounds, and in that state they are handed over to the adminis- 
tration of the monopoly. Gjironiere in describing the mode 
of culture on the tobacco plantations says: 
“During the first two months after the transplanting it is 
indispensably necessary to give four ploughings to the ground 
between the rows of the plants, and every fifteen days to | 
handpick, or even better, to root out with the mattock, all 
the weeds which cannot be touched by the plough. These 
four ploughings ought to be done in such a manner as to 
leave alternately a furrow in the middle of each line, and on 
the sides, and consequently, at the last ploughing, the earth 
covers the plants up to their first leaves, leaving a trench for 
carrying off all water that may accumulate during the heavy 
rains. As soon as each plant has gained a proper height, its 
head is lopped off to force the ae} to turn into the leaves, and, 
in a few weeks afterwards, it is fit for being gathered.” 
The tobacco fields or plantations are very large, and 
together with the vast sheds for curing, the fields present a 
beautiful appearance; the long straight rows with their dark 
green leaves adding not a little to the beauty and variety of 
the landscape. The great growers of the plant are very 
careful in cultivating the fields and give the tobacco frequent 
hoeings, until ready to be gathered and taken to the sheds. 
The planters are obliged to take the utmost pains, as the 
product is obliged to be given up to the monopolizing gov- 
ernment which is the sole purchaser, and which, in its great 
