to take off in order to
put a limit to the increase or height, and what amount of
trimming is necessary to give a chance to the proper
quantity of leaves. But the principal care, and that which
occupies him in his waking hours, is the extermination of
the voracious insects that persecute the plant. One called
_cachaga_ domesticates itself at the foot of the leaves; the
_verde_, on the under side of the leaves; the _rosquilla_,
in the heart of the plant; all of them doing more or less
damage. The planter passes entire nights, provided with
lights, clearing the buds just opening, of these destructive
insects. He has even to carry on a war with still worse
enemies,--the _vivijagnas_, a species of large, native ants,
that are to the tobacco what the locust is to the wheat.
This plague is so great, at times, that prayers and special
adoration are offered up to San Marcial to intercede against
the plague of ants.

"The plant, whose original name was _cohiba_, seems to have
been cultivated first by Europeans on the island in the
vicinity of Havana. The island of Cuba is without doubt
well adapted for the cultivation of tobacco--the soil,
climate, and improved methods of culture all tend to the
production of a leaf tobacco as celebrated as it is
valuable.

[Illustration: Killing bugs by night.]

"Between the 'Lower Valley,' in the Nicotian, not the
geographical, sense of these words, lie the so-called
_Partidos_ which produce the tobacco that is sent to Europe
as _Partido_ or _Cabanas_. The leaf often surpasses that of
the 'Lower Valley' in size and fineness, as well as in the
beauty of the color; but it is inferior in quality. The
tobacco farmers though stalwart fellows are not fond of
work, and too often waste their time at the tavern. Many of
them from thriftlessness are plunged into debt; and scarcely
is the harvest ended when they borrow money from the tobacco
merchant on the following harvest, who thereby obtains the
right to interfere, it may be despotically, with the
management of the crop. Continual embarrassments tempt the
tobacco planters to be dishonest. To cheat their creditors,
they often sell the best part of the crop in underhand
fashion. Such of the tobacco farmers as wish to produce a
great deal of tobacco,