y even in Havana, making several
brands of smoking tobacco, and, lastly, an article of
Louisiana perique, ('peruke' proper,) that any old smoker
would go into ecstasies over, fully equal, it is said to the
genuine old-fashioned article, and that is saying a good
deal. Now if we can supply the world with cigars and
tobacco, we have got a dead sure thing for the future, even
if gold gives out, grain fails and the pigs eat up all the
fruit. Your people who have been paying fifteen cents apiece
for genuine Havana cigars imported direct from--Connecticut,
should rejoice and join in an earnest _hooray!_"

In Mexico the tobacco plantations exhibit a diversity of scenery not
met with in other portions of America. The soil is well adapted for
the crop, and on many of the plantations in the Gulf States the plant
grows as finely as on any of the _vegas_ of Cuba. The Mexicans are
among the best cultivators of the plant in the world, and, like the
Turks, prefer its culture to that of any product grown. The plant is a
strong, vigorous grower, and ripens early, emitting an odor like that
of Havana tobacco. The climate is so favorable that from one to three
crops can be grown on the same field in one year, and yield a
bountiful harvest without seemingly impoverishing the soil.[66]
Transplanted in the summer or autumn, the plants grow through the
winter months, and in spring are gathered and taken to the sheds.
Sartorius, in his work on Mexico, says of its culture on the
plantation:--

[Footnote 66: Shepard says of the cultivation of tobacco
by the Indians:--"The tobacco which is raised on the
Tehuantepec isthmus is said, by good judges, to rival
that of Cuba, and commands, in the capital, equal prices
with the far-famed Havana. It is cultivated by the
Indians, whose fields, or '_milpas_,' according to
Indian custom, are situated at some distance from their
villages, often in the depths of the forest. Upon these
little patches they bestow whatever labor is consistent
with dislike for exertion, leaving the rich soil to
accomplish the balance."]

[Illustration: Mexican tobacco plantation.]

"Various kinds of tobacco are planted, mostly that with the
short, dingy, yellow blossoms, which has a very large,
strong leaf. B