for exportation in
hogsheads. No suckers nor ground leaves are allowed to be
merchantable. An industrious person may manage 6,000 plants of
tobacco, which will yield 1,000 lbs. of dried leaves, and also four
acres of Indian corn.

Miller, an American author, thus describes the mode of culture:--

When a regular plantation of tobacco is intended, the beds being
prepared and well turned up with the hoe, the seed, on account of
its smallness and to prevent the ravages of ants, is mixed with
ashes and sown upon them, a little before the rainy season. The beds
are raked, or trampled with the foot, to make the seed take the
sooner. The plants appear in two or three weeks. As soon as they
have acquired four leaves, the strongest are carefully drawn up and
planted in the field by a line, at a distance of about three feet
from each other. If no rain fall, they should be watered two or
three times. Every morning and evening the plants must he looked
over in order to destroy a worm which sometimes invades the bud.
When they are about four or five inches high, they are to be cleaned
from weeds and moulded up. As soon as they have eight or nine
leaves, and are ready to put forth a stalk, the top is nipped off in
order to make the leaves longer and thicker. After this the buds
which sprout at the joints of the leaves are also plucked off, and
not a day is suffered to pass without examining the leaves to
destroy the large caterpillar, which is often most destructive to
them. When they are fit for cutting, which is known by the
brittleness of the leaves, they are cut off with a knife close to
the ground, and, after lying some time, are carried to the
drying-shed or house, where the plants are hung up by pairs upon
lines, leaving a space between, that they may not touch one another.
When perfectly dry, the leaves are stripped from the stalks and made
into small bundles, tied with one of the leaves. These bundles are
laid in heaps and covered with blankets; care is taken not to
overheat them, for which reason the heaps are laid open to the air
from time to time, and spread abroad. This operation is repeated
till no more heat is perceived in the heaps, and the tobacco is then
ready for packing and shipping.

I have been favored by Mr. J. M. Hernandez, a Cuba planter, with some
valuable instructions for the cultivatio