The truth is, the Vuelta-Abajo, while constituting a genuine tobacco district very worthy of recognition, is somewhat indefinite as to boundaries, certainly in so far as these relate to definite positions readily accepted by the interested inhabitants of the region.

Not all the growers, however, juggle thus with the geography of the world's leading tobacco section. Some of those questioned in the vicinity of Herradura replied readily: "No, no, this not Vuelta-Abajo, this is the Semi-Vuelta district."

Certain it is, at any rate, that in the section from the vicinity of the city of Pinar del Rio and westward through the country about San Luis and San Juan y Martinez you are in thoroughly good VueltaAbajo territory. Certain it is, also, that some very excellent tobacco is grown east of this roughly defined area, as in the vicinity of Consolacion del Sur. Much depends on the soil, the fertilization, and the curing and assorting of the leaf after it is grown.

The most perfect wrapper must be of silky thinness and of fine, velvet texture. To produce this, the leaf of optimum quality, welldrained sandy or gravelly soil of a quartzose nature is essential, and the plants must be grown and cured under shade. The clay lands of the Partito district near Habana and of the various districts comprising the Vuelta-Arriba region of Santa Clara Province produce different grades of tobacco. The Partito leaf has good color; that of the Vuelta-Arriba is grown on mulatto and dark clay soils, and generally is considered of not so good quality.

On the sandy lands of the Vuelta-Abajo there must be liberal enrichment with the right kind of fertilizers. Tobacco is a heavy feeder, and to produce good yields on the thin, sandy, and gravelly lands of Pinar del Rio it is necessary to supply large amounts of those most essential elements of plant food: potassium, nitrogen, and phosphorus. The potassium must be in the form of the sulphate or carbonate. Chloride salts of the element invariably give poor burning quality, causing your cigar to give forth miniature explosions from time to time. The best form of nitrogen is said to be contained in cottonseed meal, although the manure of corn-fed horses obtained at the Habana and Santa Clara cavalry posts also gives good results.

Irrigation is practiced on the larger plantations, and the shade is full cheesecloth cover. The cloth is stretched over the top and sides of the entire field. Some of the smaller growers use only partial shade by placing over the tobacco plants leaves of royal palm supported in squares or strips by scaffolding.

CURING THE GOLDEN LEAVES

The unspotted leaves from the middle part of the stem give the best product. These are handled with much care, from the time the seed is sown in specially prepared beds until the fragrant carots are

baled for shipment to Habana. Harvesting begins when the color of the leaf is yellowish-green, known to the growers as anaragando. The writer was not at all sure he could detect any color difference between the leaves that were being plucked and those that were being left on the stalk for further ripening. There was, however, no hesitation of procedure on the part of the expert harvesters, mostly

women.

Leaf by leaf the tobacco is hand picked from the stalk. These are carefully placed one upon the other, bottom sides facing, until 32 to 36 have been collected, enough to

fill a "stick." Carriers, usually girls and boys, take this handful of plucked leaves from the picker over to the basket placed in the aisles between the plants. Here the leaves are tenderly transferred. to burlap-lined shallow baskets. When these are filled one layer deep, a burlap flap is turned over the leaves, and another crew of carriers takes the baskets into the barn, where the leaves are taken out immediately, strung on wooden sticks and finally hung for the long process of curing.

Courtesy of H. H. Bennett

Direct sunshine never touches the precious wrappers, as they are handled on the better-managed plantations. With the filler, which really makes up the body of a cigar, the methods are quite different. This is grown in the sun and does not receive nearly so much. care as the wrapper. Much of the filler is partly cured in the sun by hanging on field scaffolds for a day or more before transferrence to the barn.

The greatest care is taken in the cultivation, harvesting, and curing of the fine tobacco in the Vuelta-Abajo district.

The curing process is too long and complicated to describe here. Often the leaves remain in the barn for three months, and throughout this period the humidity must be scrupulously regulated by window airing in fair weather and by charcoal fires during rainy spells.

The cured leaves from the barn when not of a sufficiently bright color are taken down and worked into stacks for fermenting. This proceeds little by little until the desired color is obtained, the temperature being controlled by tearing down and rebuilding the stacks.

Now comes the grading, a very important part of the tobacco. business. On some of the better plantations as many as 65 to 70 assortments or classes of leaf are worked out by experienced graders. In this operation the leaves are individually examined and reexamined, some going through the hands of six or more graders variously qualified for special skill by generations of training. Much of the work of grading is left to the factory by the average small grower, who frequently is unable to carry the separations beyond basic colors, such as maduro, colorado and claro.

THE CIGAR DE LUXE!

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In Habana you select one of a number of famous brands of cigars, light it, and feel contented. It will be a good smoke, if you appreciate superior flavor and aroma; and you will have the satisfaction of knowing that no better cigar can be bought the world over.

Out on one of the big Vuelta-Abajo tobacco farms you would find something much better to smoke, that is to say, you would there have plantation-made cigars into whose composition goes the very cream of selected leaf. That is the kind the administrador smokes; this is truly the cigar de luxe. Unfortunately, it can not be bought or had anywhere but on a Vuelta-Abajo plantation. The best Habana cigar made is not nearly so good as one of these (according to the writer's appraisal) especially if it has been kept in a hogbladder pouch along with a few vanilla beans. Place yourself in a comfortable rocker on the broad, tile-floored veranda of the manager's palatial residence on a January afternoon, light up one of these de luxe cigars and you will speedily observe that you have thus gathered about yourself a situation impossible of duplication under any other circumstances. The weather will be that of the most pleasant June day of the Middle Atlantic States. You will gaze down a long avenue of royal palms rising majestically from a flowering hedge of hibiscus, across the valley of the Rio San Juan upon the pale purple slopes of the distant Lomas de los Contadores; mocking birds will be singing joyously in the tropic shrubbery about the casa vivienda. If you care for it, the boy will fetch a chilled bottle of carbonated water and whatever else the whim suggests. This will be one of your really perfect days; you will be in tune with life, and you will say to your host: "Señor, the cigar you have given me is excellent beyond belief; and the climate here, Señor, I am sure you can not possibly appreciate how entirely delightful it is. Why, I had not supposed that anywhere in the world January was acquainted with anything of the kind." To this your host will reply: "Ah, Señor, our tobacco, it is good, yes. You understand, Señor, the ground here is of the best quality; it is—ah, how do you say it?-It is perfecto! It gives to our tobacco the very good texture and the aroma, ah, yes, the aroma suprema!"

TAKING YOUR CAR TO CUBA

By ENRIQUE CORONADO SUÁREZ

Assistant Editor of the BOLETín de la UnióN PANAMERICANA

T is certain that among the millions of American tourists who seek new places in which to escape the rigors of winter there are many who are completely unaware that only a short distance away from the United States there is a beautiful and hospitable country richly endowed by nature, which offers them the pleasures of a delightful climate and most beautiful scenery as well as other enjoyments provided by human agencies. This lovely land is the Republic of Cuba, justly called "The Queen of the Tropics." According to legend, it brought to the lips of Admiral Christopher Columbus, when for the first time he stepped upon its fertile shores on October 28, 1492, the phrase, "It is the most beautiful land that man's eyes have ever beheld." And history relates that when the Great Discoverer rendered his report to the King and Queen of Spain he said, in speaking of Cuba, "This land, Your Gracious Majesties, is so marvelously fair that it surpasses all others in enchantment as the light of day surpasses the darkness of night. I have often said to my subordinates that, however much I might exert myself to give Your Majesties a complete account of it, my tongue could not speak the whole truth, nor could my pen write it, for truly I am so amazed by its loveliness that, although I have written fully of other regions, with their fruits and flowers and their varied qualities, this one exceeds my powers." Such words, in conjunction with the many other descriptions which historians, poets, and other authors have written in praise of this sunny isle are more than sufficient to invite the American tourist to these fresh fields and pastures new which lie almost within his sight.

The journey to Cuba from the United States may be comfortably made to-day in three ways, by sea, by land, and by air. But considering that the second way, if by automobile, offers perhaps the greatest attraction since upon one's arrival in Cuba it affords a means for a closer view of an exotic countryside, I shall confine myself to a brief description of such a journey and of the ease with which the writer has just made it.

Taking as our starting point the city of Miami, Fla., the trip to Cuba may be made in the following way: Leave Miami not later than 8 o'clock in the morning and drive 90 miles between that city and Matecumbe Key, where one takes the steamer the same day at

1 o'clock in the afternoon. It is important to purchase tickets. ahead of time in Miami, since the space for automobiles in the ferryboat is limited, and if a ticket is not secured, one has to wait over a day. The passage from one key to the next takes two hours, after which there is a drive of 12 miles before another ferry is taken for a second trip of two hours. Then one motors 40 miles to Key West. The cost of these two ferry trips, including the fare of the driver, ranges between $3.50 and $6.50 according to the weight of the car. Other passengers pay $1 apiece.

Since the ferryboats and the steamer from Key West to Habana do not make connections the same day, the night must be passed in the former city. The next day the steamer sails at 1 o'clock in the afternoon, arriving at the Cuban capital at 7 o'clock in the evening. The customs officials in Key West require all automobiles to be ready for embarkation at the port at 11 o'clock in the morning, at which time a declaration must be filled out, giving the make of the car, name of the owner, number of the motor, and other simple data. It is therefore important that every driver should carry with him his registration card, his driving permit, and all other information needed to fill out this declaration without loss of time. The cost of transporting the automobile from Key West to Habana is $15 each way. Passengers, including the driver, pay $17.50 apiece, or for $30 may buy a round-trip ticket good for 60 days. Other rates are made. for 10-day tickets.

It is essential that travelers should know in advance the name of the hotel in Habana where they are to stay, since the port authorities require that this should be placed on the declaration. Charges in even the best Habana hotels are very moderate this season. As soon as passengers have transported their baggage to the dock in Key West it is in the care of the steamer officers, who have it carried to the cabins and on arrival at Habana to the customhouse, where passengers obtain it after examination. The same is the case with the automobile. In the customhouse at Habana the driver is given a free temporary permit to operate his car in Cuba, the permit being valid for 90 days. The car must be taken out of the country by the same port at which it enters. At the customhouse are found the agents of the various hotels, easily identified by the name on their caps. They take charge of the transportation of baggage and assist the tourist in everything necessary for removing his automobile and getting through the customs, which is not an onerous process. Any returning traveler may bring into the United States free of duty 50 cigars, 300 cigarettes, and 3 pounds of smoking tobacco.

Since the city of Habana is one of the most beautiful capitals in the world because of its magnificent buildings, imposing churches, noble historical remains, delightful promenades, beaches, hotels, recreation facilities, and many other attractions, the tourist will be well advised