Edible Product*. 



m 



suckers must be removed as soon as it is possible to lay hold of them couveniently, 

 care being taken not to leave a single one on any part of the plant ; remove every 

 vestige of a sucker right down to the ground. If one is left it will be benefited 

 by the removal of the others and grow at a prodigious rate. 



If the weather is moist the suekering can be done at any time of the day, 

 but if dry, hot days obtain, the suekering is best done in the morning, as the 

 suckers are brittle and snap off easily : whereas in the afternoon they become 

 leathery and difficult to remove without injuring the good leaves. 



About ten or fourteen days after the first suekering another lot of suckers 

 will appear ; these must be removed in the same way leaving two only that are 

 growing out of the stem below the surface of the soil, these are called the first 

 ' ratoons,' to distinguish them from the plant which is called the ' principal.' 



Ripening.— Seven or eight days after the second suekering the leaves will 

 begin to ripen ; the first to do so will be, of course, the bottom or oldest leaves 

 and the last the top ones. The first sign of ripening will be a crimpled appear- 

 ance in the leaf, somewhat like a savoy cabbage but not so pronounced ; the 

 next is that the leaves turn a light green ; which on closer examination will 

 be found to be caused by a yellow shading at the summit of each little bump 

 or crimp. The leaves then become thick and leathery, and the minute hairs 

 lose their glistening appearance and in some cases the edges turn down. 



If the plant is topped properly, it will be ready to cut when the lower 

 middle of the top leaf is ripe, this being the last spot on the whole plant to 

 ripen. It will thus be seen that it is possible to judge a day when the plant 

 is fit to cut. 



Ratoons.— There is a saying among the Cubans that the price obtained 

 for the 'principals' covers the cost of the cultivation and curing of the whole crop 

 the ' ratoons ' representing net profit. The former are sold as ' capa ' (wrapper) 

 but are used for ' capoti ' (binder) in the best cigars, for which Sumatra wrappers 

 are used, and as wrappers for cheap cigars ; the ratoons are used for ' tripa ' 

 (filler). 



By good management is is, however, possible to obtain excellent capa 

 leaves from the first ratoons ; more especially when the principal ripens up 

 quickly and is cut in time to allow the ratoon leaves to develop) in the full light. 

 The ratoons require the same attention as the principals with regard to weed- 

 ing, moulding, tapping, and suekering, again leaving one or two ratoons, according 

 to the strength of the plant, to take the place of the ripe ratoons when cut. 



The cutting may go on in this way until the leaves produced are so 

 small as not to be worth the expense of cutting and hanging. 



Whilst the planting operations are proceeding, some attention should be 

 given to the curing house in the way of preparing it for the reception of the 

 crop ; if no curing house exists it will be necessary to build one, and if this is 

 contemplated the following simple directions may be found useful. 



{To be Continued.) 



EXPERIMENTS IN CURING TOBACCO IN MADRAS. 

 Madras is justifiably proud of her cheroots, but nobody would venture 

 to say that the local tobacco industry is incapable of improvement. The 

 Government of Madras, in their anxiety to improve the quality of the tobacco 

 produced in this Presidency, more especially as regards the operation of curing, 

 have had under consideration two schemes (1) the employment of a curer from 

 Jamaica, and (2) the careful curing, under Messrs. Spencer and Co.'s supervision, 



