158 THE CULTURE OF TOBACCO. 



coolies. He gets compensation proportionate to position and 

 services. 



A coolie is given a letter of discharge when he is honourably 

 discharged, and no planter will engage any coolie on the island who 

 does not have such a letter. No coolie is allowed to go off the estate 

 without a pass, and if he be found without one, he is lodged in jail 

 until his employer is located. A reward is paid to the person who 

 returns the coolie, and this amount is charged to the coolie's wages. 



The expense of clearing the field is charged to the coolie unless he 

 does the work himself. No more than sixteen shillings, however, is 

 charged for any one field. After the field has been burned, and 

 thoroughly cleaned, it is dug up to the depth of twelve inches by hand. 

 No ploughs are used in the new fields because of the large number of 

 roots and stumps. Ditches are dug between each two fields and empty 

 into the main ditches at the side of the road. 



Each coolie makes his own plant beds. Sometimes a large 

 number of these beds are made so as to insure a stand of plants. The 

 bed is protected by a shading of grass. The seed is furnished the 

 coolie, and just enough seed for one bed is delivered at a time. 



The plants are set in the field two feet apart in three foot rows, 

 although sometimes the distances are reduced to two feet each way. 

 Each plant is shaded by having a piece of thin light wood placed 

 slantingly on the sunny side. These cost from thirty shillings to two 

 pounds per ten thousand, and they are chai'ged to the coolie's account, 

 but he may return them and get credit when he has finished using 

 them. Thorough cultivation by hand implements is demanded. 

 With each cultivation the earth is banked up more and more to the 

 plants. At the time of the second cultivation the lower leaves are 

 broken off and buried at the base of the plant. All diseased or 

 injured plants ai'e destroyed, and if the plants ai'e not too large they 

 are replaced. The plants are topped at from fifteen to twenty-five 

 leaves. The suckers are taken oft' as they appear and the worms are 

 gathered by hand and desti'oyed. 



When ripe, the leaves are picked off and placed in baskets, which 

 are delivered to the curing shed. The coolie gets about twenty-six 

 shillings per thousand for the best plants produced and as low as 

 three shillings for the worst. If he grows a second crop from the 

 suckers, he gets about half as much per thousand for it as foi' the 

 first. 



When the tol)acco has been received at the cuiing barn from the 

 coolie it is hung on sticks. The barns ai'e usually kept closed at 

 night and open in the day time. Duiing wet weather- a fire is built 

 that does not give any smoke oi' odour. A watchman remains in the 

 barn everv night and regulates the ventilatit>n according to 

 instructions given him. From four to five weeks complete the 

 curing. 



The drying sheds are jjlaced at the road, so that one can do 

 for each eight fields. They are usually seventy-two feet wide, one 

 hundred and eighty feet long, and thirty-six feet from the ground to 

 the ridge pole. 'The frame is formed of material taken from the 

 jungle. The sides are covered with rough planks, and the roof is 

 thatched with a covering made from the leaves of a palm. The 

 building is cheaply put up, for it is not intended to last more than 

 two years, as the fields will then be abandoned and new ones laid nut. 

 In deserting a building the tliateh is removed, rolled up, and used on 



