In Cuba the
"SEMILLEROS"
or planting beds as a rule, lie higher than the rest of the farm. On the large vegas or tobacco plantations, numbers of planting beds are made under the supervision of the mayoral. Siecke gives the following account of making the beds or semilleros:
"On the island of Cuba any field selected for the cultivation of tobacco is divided into long beds (Canteras) twenty-five to twenty-eight feet long, and nineteen to twenty inches wide. The soil is then manured with a mixture of two parts of well rotten dung and one part of either sand or fine sandy earth. During the months of August, September, and even October, the beds are watered, and the seeds mingled with the nine-fold quantity of fine sand, are sown broad cast or through a fine sieve, and immediately after covered with a mixture of dung and triturated or molaxated earth, in such a manner that this mixture forms a covering layer of about 1-32 inches.
"The utmost care is taken to protect the seeds against the stifling heat of sunrays as well as heavy showers. To this end forked sticks about three inches high, are placed around the tobacco beds, opposite one another, and into these forks thin twigs are laid, which are covered with palm-leaves in such a way as to form a slight roof."
Covering Plant Bed.
In Syria the tobacco seed is sown in ground free from stones, well manured with goats dung, and strewn over with prickly bushes to protect the young plants from birds. The plants are watered daily till they reach the height of eight or ten inches, when they are transplanted. In Persia where the celebrated Shiraz tobacco is cultivated, the seed is planted in a dark soil slightly manured; the ground is covered with light thorny bushes to keep it warm, and these are removed when the plants are a few inches high. The ground is regularly watered if required, and when the plants are six to eight inches high are transplanted. In Turkey
"the tobacco seed is sown early in the spring, in small beds carefully prepared for the early growth of the young plants. In a few weeks the plants appear thick; then begins the occupation of the farmer's wife, and their numerous children, whose little fingers are engaged day by day in thinning the beds, care being taken to leave the most healthy looking plants. The husband is engaged either in carrying water from the nearest well by the aid of his mule, or in preparing the land for the reception of the plants. The beds are well watered before sunrise and after sundown."