The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-07-30

IT II TO tobacco what the locust Is TO wheat
only a hundred times more so. When its
visitations assume the proportions OF a
plague the Cuban way OF checking II Is to go
IN solemn procession TO the nearest church
and impIore the kindly assistance Of San
Marcial. who Is known TO be the special
patron of the vegueross. When that fails.
as truth compels TO admit IL has been
known TO do-cremation is the last resort.
and that unfortunately destroys the plant
well as the pest. for the eggs in the soil
must be sterilized. When the planter has
watched his tobacco grow up TO sturdy
plants six or eight feet high. it is discour-
aging TO say the least. TO see them sudden
~ droOp and fade. He cuts into the stems OF
a few OF them, several inches above the
ground. and finds fragile lace work Of fiber
where healthy cells full OF sap should be-
the work Of the industrious and tasteful
vivijagua. AL these plants are. so are all
the rest IN the field. and the whole crop is a
failure.
Equally voracious is the cachaga, an
other insect that assails tobacco and makes
the planters life a burden. 1t domiciles
itself at the roots of the leaves and feeds
upon the stalks, twisting the outer edge
OF the leaves as IL eats its way along them
into little tunnels TO shelter a rapidly
Increasing family. Another pest is the
loathsome verde little green worm, the
identical shade OF the leaf through which
u travels, leaving nothing behind but the
midrib- A fat, jointed worm. shaded from
pale green 10 yellow, big around your
thumb and several inches long. eats like
the lean kline of Egypt, but luckily not
so numerous. The ''rosequilla" gets into
the hearts of the buds and multiplies so
amazingly that in twenty-four hours the
plant is a total wreck. And there are
Others too many TO enumerate. To rid
the vega OF these animalculae the surest way
Is TO pick them off by hand. and when the
prayers to San Marcial have not brought
relief the tropical night sometimes witnesses
strange scene-a procession of all the
hands on the place. headed by the owner
and tailed by the overseer. each with tiny
lamp attached TO his shirt front. moving
with slow regularity down the long drills
of the field plugging the plants.
SHORTAGE IN CROPS.
Though for two long centuries the Vuelta
Abajo was Cuba's Klondike, yielding enough
tobacco for the island factories TO send out
about 250.OO0.OO0 cigars a year. there has not
been sufficient tobacco raised in Cuba CT
late TO supply the home demand. Everybody
forbidding the expectation of Cuban to-
bacco. and how the insurgents got even
with him by burning the crops, green and
growing, and all the stored tobacco they
could lay hands on. 1t is estimated that
more than 100000 pounds Of the very best
tobacco in the world was thus wantonly
destroyed. The Marquis of Teneriffe who
seldom acted without elaboration, had his
reasons for the order. He knew that the
war was largely carried on by Cuban cigar
makers IN Tampa and Key West every one
OF whom gave literally from his weekly
wage TO the cause of national liberty. To
prohibit the export of the leaf would throw
all these men out of employment and de-
prive the insurgents of an important source
OF revenue. Weyler also believed that
dealers and manufacturers in the United
States would purchase all the tobacco on
hand In Cuba and force the Havana facto-
ries to close. And so it happened. Amer
leans did buy up all they could get before
the decree, purposely delayed in the exc
cution. took effect. The shrewd captain
general had private schemes of his own to
serve in the same connection, and he served
them so we'll that in spite of starving Cuba
and impoverished Spain he left the island a
multi-millionaire. Under pretense of some
ton and Madrid, tobacco continued to be
exported by the thousands of bales as long
as any remained on the island. in the face
+. OF the prohibitlve decree, and on
every pound of IL Weyler peck
eted a liberal commission. After the
plantations were ruined the great
factories of Havana, some Of which en-
ployed from 200 TO LOCO men and girls, had
\ 10 shut up for want Of the leaf to work on;
| the Florida cigar towns were filled with
hundreds of idle, half-starved Cubans, and
fthe insurgent army felt keenly it's loss of
revenue from that source. The proprietor
of la Honrades' told me that before the
decree his factory made up 5000 pounds of
tobacco every day. the average daily out
put being coco cigars. 1t nearly broke his
heart to have to play into Weyler's hands,
so to say. by discharging his employees,
knowing that all would suffer and many
actually starve to death; but what else
could he do. being himself face to face with
restitution? After the insurgents had de-
stroyed the plantations and stored tobacco
a little continued to be raised. perhaps one
tenth of the usual crop, in the backwards OF
.foretifed villages and in the zonas de cultvo
designated by Weyler for the planting OF
gardens TO sustain the reconcentrados-for
10 give the evil one his due. L do not be-
lieve the archmurderer deliberately intend
ed TO send the people to the doom that be-
fell them.
Happily those days of darkness and terror
are ended and Cuba. for the first time in her
history. is at liberty TO make the best OF
her resources. But the twentieth century
will be well advanced before the famous
Vuelta Abajo can flourish again as of yore
Whole towns have been wiped out and 81
per cent OF the population are in their
graves Neither American occupation nor
absolute independence can fill the place OF
the Spanish tobacco trade in Cuba, or what
1t might have been without excessive taxa
fion-the close alliance of the island with the
old "Conpania Generate Tobacos'' yielding
an enormous revenue TO both governments.
The future of tobacco production in the ISL
and Is as uncertain as that of the Alaskan
klondike. Soon as American control was
assured. after the signing OF the protocol, to-
bacco buyers and manufacturers made ad-
vances TO the vegueros: but too late 10 ac-
complish much that year. This year, If ex-
cessive rains do not injure the crop, they
will do considerably better. Some sanguins
manufacturers. who have watched the ups
and downs of tobacco for half lifetime. as