Some of the finest buildings in Habana are devoted to the manufacture of tobacco. The factories are numerous and include many in which no more than twenty hands are engaged, but the bulk of the business is centred in a few companies that each employ thousands of workmen. There has been considerable reorganization among the large manufacturing concerns in recent years, involving the introduction of a large amount of additional capital and the extension of American interests. More than 25,000 persons gain a livelihood in the tobacco business in Habana alone. Not less than ninety-five per cent. of the exports of manufactured tobacco are from Habana. A large proportion of the factory output of interior towns is accounted for by domestic consumption. The Cuban _veguero_ possesses a skill in tobacco growing which is the result of the accumulated experience and practice of generations. In his hands the cultivation of the narcotic plant is a highly developed art, but it has not been reduced to a science. The most successful Cuban planter can not tell you definitely how he produces his results, nor why certain processes insure desired consequences. He has no fixed formulas, and some of his most cherished practices are based on sheer superstition. As a rule, he is working ground that his father and grandfather worked before him. Through their experience and his own he has gained an intimate knowledge of its needs, capacity, and peculiarities. He can produce results from it that Europeans and Americans have never succeeded in equalling without his aid. Nevertheless, it is doubtful if the Cuban is securing from his tobacco land the utmost yield in quality or quantity of which it is capable. In the cultivation he clings to many crudities; his irrigation is haphazard and often misjudged; he does not avail himself of the mechanical appliances at his command. Where the best leaf is grown, traditional methods are most firmly entrenched. There have, however, been introduced great improvements in the treatment of lands controlled by large corporations. The chief and most effective of these is the cultivation of the leaf under cover. In order to encourage this development of the industry, the duty on cheese cloth, which ranged from fifteen to fifty cents per kilogram, was repealed in 1902. Since then the area under cover has steadily increased and the results achieved justify the belief that Cuba will soon rival Sumatra in the production of fine wrappers. Tobacco seed is sown in carefully prepared beds during the month of September. About sixty days later the young plants are set out in the field with eighteen inches of space between each. Constant pruning and weeding are necessary in order to insure a healthy and vigorous growth. At the same time the tobacco worm and leaf slug must be picked off as fast as they appear on the plant.