O.

Colombia has long been celebrated for the quality and varieties of its
tobacco. Its cultivation has been carried on for more than two hundred
and fifty years, and Varinian tobacco had obtained a well established
reputation in Europe long before Raleigh's "would-be-colonists"
sailed for Virginia. The principal varieties grown are Colombian,
Carmen, Ambalema, Palmyra, and Giron. Most of these tobaccos are used
for cigar purposes, especially the latter. The leaf is fine, of good
size, and marked with light yellow spots. Tanning says of the tobacco
of Colombia:

"The Cumanacoa, Tobacco de la Cueva, de los Misones, de la
Laguna de Valencia cura seca and Caraco, de la Lagunade
Valencia cura negro, de Oriluca, de Varinos cura seca, de
Casovare, de Baylodores, de Rio Negro en Andull, are equal
to the tobacco of the Brazils. The tobacco of the Cueva, in
the department of Cumana, is said to be grown from the
excrements of certain birds deposited by them in a cavity,
from which the natives extract it: it is considered the
finest tobacco in Colombia. The birds are a species of the
owl.

"The natives of Varinos, and in fact of the whole kingdom,
chew a substance called chimo, which is made of a jelly, by
boiling the Varinos tobacco, and afterwards mixed with an
alkali called _hurado_, which is found in a lake near
Merida. Both are an _estanco_ of government, and produce a
large annual income. The mode of cultivating the above
tobacco by the natives is as follows:--They prepare a small
bed, sifting the earth very fine, on which they sow the
seed, and then cover it with plantain leaves for some days.
As soon as the plants make their appearance, they raise the
leaves about two feet, so as to give the plants free air,
and to allow them sooner to grow strong. When they become
large enough to transplant, they have the land prepared; and
as soon as the rainy season sets in, they plant out their
young plants, taking great care to protect them from the
sun, and to keep them clean as they grow up, as well as to
prevent the worms from destroying or eating the leaves. When
the leaf is ripe, it gets yellow spots on it; and on bending
the leaf it cracks. Then it is fit for pulling off, which is
done, and the leaves are neatly packed in handsful, placed
in a dry situation, and occasion