CUBAN PLANT BED. : 423 
bed is sometimes damaged by a too deep working. Rak. 
carefully, getting off all the roots and fa, The bel cheall 
be drained by a little ditch around it on the upper side. If. 
itis very early in the Fall, the seed should not be sown until 
the danger of very warm days has passed. After the last of 
November the sowing should be assoon as the bed is prepared. 
A little less than a heaping tablespoonful to ten steps square 
is about the quantity of seed. Cover the seed very lightly 
with the rake or tramping the ground with the feet. Cover 
the bed with a good layer of straight brush, not enough to 
keep the light rains from the bed, but at the same time 
enough to keep the ground in a moist condition even in hot 
weather. Make a low close brush fence around the bed to 
keep the leaves from being blown upon it. Re-sow whenever 
the plants are well up, so as to have two chances. Take off 
the brush cover when the plants are big enough to shade the 
.ground themselves. If the plants are rather thin on the bed, 
do not uncover until you go there to draw the plants. If 
there is any danger of a scarcity of plants, always put the 
trash back after drawing.” 
In Cuba the 
“ SEMILLEROS ” 
or planting beds as a rule, lie higher than the rest of the 
farm. On the large vegas or tobacco plantations, numbers of 
planting beds are made under the supervision of the mayoral. 
Siecke gives the following account of making the beds or 
semilleros : 
“On the island of Cuba any field selected for the cultiva- 
tion of tobacco is divided into long beds (Canteras) twenty- 
five to twenty-eight feet long, and nineteen to twenty inches 
wide. The soil is then manured with a mixture of two parts 
of well rotten dung and one part of either sand or finesandy 
earth. During the months of August, September, and even 
October, the beds are watered, and the seeds mingled with 
the nine-fold quantity of fine sand, are sown broad cast or 
through a fine sieve, and immediately after covered with a 
mixture of dung and triturated or molaxated earth, in such a 
manner that this mixture forms a covering layer of about 
1-32 inches. 
“The utmost care is taken to protect the seeds against the 
stifling heat of sunrays as well as heavy showers. To 
this end forked sticks about three inches high, are placed 
