ts production than
any other of the West India islands, not excepting even the island of
Trinidad.

Hazard, in his work on Cuba, describes the celebrated _vegas_ or
tobacco plantations, of the island as follows:

[Illustration: A Cuban _vega_.]

"The best properties known as _vegas_, or tobacco farms, are
comprised in a narrow area in the south-west part of the
island, about twenty-seven leagues broad. Near the western
extremity of the Island of Cuba, on the southern coast, is
found one of the finest tobaccos in the world. Within a
space of seventy-three miles long and eighteen miles wide,
grows the plant that stands as eminent among tobacco plants
as the lordly Johannisberger among the wines of the Rhine.
Shut in on the north by mountains, and south-west by the
ocean, Pinar del Rio being the principal point in the
district. These _vegas_ are found generally on the margins
of rivers, or in low, moist localities, their ordinary size
being not more than a _coballeria_, which amounts to about
thirty-three acres of our measurement. The half of this is
also most frequently devoted to the raising of the vegetable
known as the _platano_ (banana), which may be said to be the
bread of the lower classes. A few other small vegetables are
raised. The usual buildings upon such places are a dwelling
house, a drying-house, a few sheds for cattle, and perhaps a
small _bohio_ (hut), or two, made in the rudest manner, for
the shelter of the hands, who, upon some of the very largest
places number twenty or thirty, though not always
negroes--for this portion of the labor of the island seems
to be performed by the lower classes of whites. Some of the
places that are large have a mayoral, as he is called, a man
whose business it is to look after the negroes, and direct
the agricultural labors; but, as a general thing, the
planter, who is not always the owner of the property, but
simply the lessee, lives upon, directs, and governs the
place.

"Guided by the results of a long experience transmitted from
his ancestors (says a Spanish author), the farmer knows,
without being able to explain himself, the means of
augmenting or diminishing the strength or the mildness of
the tobacco. His right hand, as if guided by an instinct,
foresees what buds it is necessary