436 SEASON IN MEXICO AND PERSIA. 
sheltered from the spring frosts, a circumstance to which a 
planter should always be attentive in selecting his plant patch,) 
to shoot forward in sufficient strength to bear the vicissitude 
of transplantation. 
“They are supposed to be equal to meet the imposition of 
this task, when the leaves are about the size of a dollar; but 
this is more generally the minor magnitude of the leaves ; and 
some will be of course about three or four times that medium 
dimension. Thus, when a good shower or season happens 
at this period of the year, and the field and plants are equally 
ready for the intended union, the planter hurries to the plant 
bed, disregarding the teeming element, which is doomed to 
wet his skin, from the view of a bountiful harvest, and hav- 
ing carefully drawn the largest sizable plants, he proceeds 
to the next operation, (that) of planting. 
“The office of planting the tobacco, is performed by two 
or more persons, in the following manner: The first person 
bears, suspended upon one arm, a large basket full of the 
plants, which have just been drawn and brought from the 
plant bed to the field, without waiting for an intermission of 
the shower, although it should rain ever so heavily ; such an 
opportunity indeed, instead of being shunned, is eagerly 
sought after, and is considered to be the sure and certain 
means of laying a good foundation, which cherishes the hope 
of a bounteous return. The person who bears the basket, 
proceeds thus by rows from hill to hill; and upon each hill 
he takes care to drop one of his plants. Those who follow 
make a hole in the center of each hill with their fingers, and 
having adjusted the tobacco plant in its natural position, 
they knead the earth round the root with their hands, until 
it is of a sufficient consistency to sustain the plant against 
wind and weather. In this condition they leave the field for 
afew days, until the plants shall have formed their radifica- 
tions; and where any of them shall have casually perished, 
the ground is followed over again by successive replantings, 
until the crop is rendered complete.” 
In tropical regions, the plants are transplanted as well in 
summer and fall as in the spring, but more frequently in the 
early autumn. In Mexico, transplanting is performed from 
August till November. In Persia, the tobacco plants are 
“transplanted on the tops of ridges in a ground trenched so as 
to retain water. When the plants are thirty to forty inches 
high, the leaves vary from three to fifteen inches in length, 
