CUBA— THE SUGAR MILL OF THE ANTILLES 



31 



Photograph by American Photograph Company 



A CART-LOAD OF BALED TOBACCO AS IT COMES INTO THE HAVANA WAREHOUSES 

 FROM THE FARM WHERE IT WAS GROWN 



No cart is too humble to be drawn by a mule caparisoned as for a parade. Note the 

 bells on the hames and the tassels suspended from the headstall of the bridle. The Cuban 

 is exceptionally fond of the ornate, whether in language, architecture, or harness. 



the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean 

 Sea, in a well-watered, rolling country, 

 full of natural beauty and possessed of a 

 climate as mild and sweet as the fra- 

 grance of the cigar whose raw material 

 grows there. The soil is chocolate- 

 colored, from two to ten feet deep, and 

 gets its peculiar qualities from the vol- 

 canoes that once were active there. 



In growing Vuelta Aba jo tobacco, seed 

 is taken from the first growth of strong 

 and sturdy plants and placed in plots of 

 virgin soil near the fields. When the 

 seedlings reach a proper state of develop- 

 ment they are transplanted in the fields. 

 Fertilizer is selected by chemical analysis 

 of both the soil and the tobacco whose 

 flavor it is desired to reproduce. A mulch 

 of from two to three inches of partly 

 decomposed hay is put over the ground 



to keep down the weeds and to provide 

 vegetable matter as plant food. 



In cutting the tobacco great care is 

 taken that it shall have reached the proper 

 degree of ripeness. Green tobacco pro- 

 duces a harsh, acrid smoke ; that which 

 is over-ripe does not work up well in 

 making the cigars ; that which the sun 

 "has cooked to a turn'' produces a mild, 

 smooth, cool, and fragrant smoke. 



TWO YEARS TO CURE HIGH-GRADE LEAF 



In curing, the leaves are suspended 

 on poles which are put in racks, first in 

 the sun and then in the curing barns. In 

 the latter they hang for several weeks, 

 their color changing from the green of 

 the growing plant to the brown of the 

 finished cigar. 



When this stage of the curing process 



