anilla for
sale to the government. In the island of Luzon, the greatest quantity
of tobacco is cultivated in the provinces of Nueva Ecija and Cagavan.

[Illustration: Tobacco plow.]

Tomlinson in an account of the tobacco of the Philippines says:
"Manilla leaf comes from the three principal districts of the island
of Luzon--Visayos, Ygarotes and Cagayan." The mode of cultivation does
not differ in any great respect from that followed in other parts of
the world. Great seed beds are made on the plantations where the
plants are grown until ready to transplant in the tobacco ground.
Unlike most land adapted for tobacco, large crops are grown without
the aid of any fertilizer whatever. In cultivating the plants,
buffaloes are used, yoked one after the other, going between the rows
several times, and at the last ploughing leaving a trench in the
middle of the rows, for letting off the water. The Indian plow used in
cultivating is exceedingly simple: it is composed of four pieces of
wood which the most unhandy ploughman can put together, with the mould
board and share, which are of cast iron. The lightness and simplicity
of this plough render it easy to be used in every kind of cultivation,
where the plantations are divided into rows, such as those of tobacco,
maize and sugar cane. It is used with great advantage, not only for
cutting down weeds, but also for giving to each row a ploughing, which
is serviceable to the plantation, and which is less costly and
quicker than simple weeding with the mattock.

When the leaves are ripe they are stripped from the stalks and
separated into three classes, according to their size, and afterwards
made into bunches of fifty or a hundred, by passing through them, near
the foot, a little bamboo cane, as if it was a skewer, by which the
bunches are afterwards hung up to dry in vast sheds, into which the
sun's rays cannot enter, but in which the air circulates freely; they
are left to hang there until they become quite dry, and for this, a
greater or less time is required, according to the state of the
weather. When the drying is effected the leaves are placed according
to their quality, in bales of twenty-five pounds, and in that state
they are handed over to the administration of the monopoly. Gironiere
in describing the mode of culture on the tobacco plantations says:

"During the first two months after the transplanting it is
indispensably necessary to give four ploughings t