tion involves
considerable labor and expense, as the soil must be carefully chosen
and prepared, and the crop is an exhaustive one to the land; but the
cultivation does not require machinery, like sugar-cane, nor quite so
much care as does the growing coffee. It is valued in accordance with
the locality from which it comes, some sections being especially
adapted to its production. That of the greatest market value, and used
in the manufacture of the highest-cost cigars, is grown in the most
westerly division of the island, known as the Vuelta de Abajo (Lower
Valley). The whole western portion of Cuba is not by any means
suitable to the production of tobacco. The region of the best tobacco
is comprised within a small parallelogram of very limited extent.
Beyond this, up to the meridian of Havana, the tobacco is of fine
color, but of inferior aroma. From Consolacion to San Christoval the
tobacco is very "hot,"--to use a local phrase,--harsh, and strong, and
from San Christoval to Guanajay the quality is inferior up to Holguin
y Cuba, where better tobacco is produced. The fertile valley of Los
Guines produces poor smoking-tobacco, but an article excellent for the
manufacture of snuff. On the banks of the Rio San Sebastian, are also
some estates which produce the very best quality of tobacco. Thus
it will be seen that certain properties of soil operate more directly
in producing a fine grade of tobacco than any slight variation of
climate. Possibly a chemical analysis of the soil of the Vuelta de
Abajo would enable the intelligent cultivator to supply to other lands
the ingredients wanted to make them produce equally good tobacco. A
fairly marketable article, however, is grown in nearly any part of the
island. Its cultivation is thought to produce a full ten per cent.
upon the capital invested, the annual crop of Cuba being estimated in
value at about twenty-three million dollars. The number of tobacco
planters is said to be about fifteen thousand, large and small. On
many tobacco farms the labor is nearly all performed by white hands.
Some coolies and some negroes are also employed even on small estates.

When it is remembered that so small a portion of the land is under
cultivation, and yet that Cuba exports annually a hundred million
dollars worth of sugar and molasses, besides coffee, tobacco, fruits,
and precious woods, it will be realized what might be accomplished,
under a liberal system of government, upon this gem