The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-08-31


 and home as he travels to the tip. The loathsome little verde Is an unrivalled mimic, His success in coloring himself the identical' shade of the leaf through all its degrees of ripening Is calculated to deceive the keenest eye. For thor ouShness of work he compels respect He leaves nothing but the midrib The eXasperating "rosquilla" gets into the hearts of the buds, and so rapidly does he multiply that in twenty-four hours the plant is, like poor Swift, dead at the top.'
 To rid the ega of all these animalcu- lac there is nothing for it but to pick them off by hand. It Is pretty scene, in the tranquil tropical night, when the hands, each with little safety-lamp attached to his hat or to his shirt front, move with slow regularity, one by one, up and down the long drills of the field, the master taking duty at one end of the procession, the "mayoral' at the other
 The genus nicotiana," whose origi- nal name was "cohiba," attains, as all lowed height of from six to nine feet. The tobacco is stronger when fewer of
  are permitted to grow, eight to twelve being an average on good plant. These leaves, when young, are of cool, dark green, of a sheeny, smooth tex ture, and change, when mature, into an 'arty greenery- -yallery. The Cubanos divide them into four distinct classes. To the first belong the "desecho," or 'desecho limpio," the pick of the leaves directly at the top of the plant, which are the best for the reason that they have more equally come under the influence of the sun by day and the dew by night. Of the second class are the "desechito," which grows next to the above. The libra" or inferior, which are the small leaves about the top of the plant, constitute the third. In the fourth class are the ''injuriado, the leaves nearest the root, which are more apt to be soil-stained and injured by insects or by chemicals The Haba- nero connoisseurs readily distinguish the best quality of dried leaves, such as the choice vegas produce, by their free dom from stains and their even tinting of rich brown, exactly, say these peo- pie who understand "la galanteria, like the irises of the southern girl. These leaves, when made into cigars, burn freely with brown or white ash, which will sometimes remain as such until the cigar is half smoked. In each of the foregoing classes there are, again, several grades Of the "injuria- do' there are three qualities, of which the best is the "injuriado de reposo," the repicked, the other two being 'pri- meros'' and "segundos." Imperfect leaves of the "desechito'' and the ''li- bra" are called "injuriado bueno," while all the unclassifiable-the poorest quality or broken leaves of the finest is termed 'injuriado malo" The trade distinguishes all these classes and grades by numbers, which, to the ex pert, suggest the names.
 THE VOLUME OF PRODUCTION.
 A vega of thirty three acres may pro- duce about ten thousand pounds of to- bacco, of which five hundred may be 'desecho," or best; two thousand ''dese- chito," or seconds; three thousand "li- bra," or thirds, and four thousand five hundred pounds of 'injuriado." To es- timate the profits of tobacco farm in a good year is difficult as the price per bale may vary from forty to four hum dred dollars, according to the class of leaf and the reputation of the vega. Since in Havana alone there are over two hundred Fabricas, the traveller is liable to buy in the 'Yey to the New World'' as poor cigar as anywhere in London or New York. What it's churches are to Rome the Fabricas are to 'The Paris of the Tropics from the tiny "tienda'' open to the street and working two or three assistants to the | huge factories employing from five hundred to a thousand. As the process of manufacture and the classification of grades is much the same with all the best makers, some details of a typical Fabrica-such as that of Partagas, Ca banas, Uppmann, Larranaga or Muria will illustrate the method of any of the great houses. The sales per annum by one of these houses only have amounted, previous to the present war, to thirty million cigars, of which Spain, England, Latin America and the States imported about five million each. France and Germany some three mill lion each, the remainder either never passing into commerce or being re- tained for Cuban consumption. Many of the proprletors of the Fabricas con- tract with the planters of the Vuelta Abajo; others have their own vegas. The first-class houses will not touch the "injuriado," but export it.
 The manipulator must be not only an artist, but an expert in everything rela- ting to the tobacco plant, which can develop more "cussedness" than any, thing else in the vegetable kingdom. He next with sense of quantity that never fails him, lays the sufficient amount of "tripa" on a leaf strip, twists the whole in one second into the shape of cigar, and next moment has rolled the "capa" around it. The Ha- banero ''torcedor' is not merely skilled workman-he is juggler. He has made the cigar of just the right length and size without one trimming of the knife. The employees in this room are the men the highest in consid- eration in the factory. Most of them have acuired their experience in their subject by several seasons on the vega as well as half a lifetime in the Fabri- ca. Each must have a "nose' an un- erring eye, a sound nerve, the fingers of the sensitiveness of antennae, some times even judicial palate But they are capitally paid. The "escojedores" get from five to seven dollars, or occa- sinna11y eipht dollars per dav tba ator