"Guided by the results of a long experience transmitted from his ancestors (says a Spanish author), the farmer knows, without being able to explain himself, the means of augmenting or diminishing the strength or the mildness of the tobacco. His right hand, as if guided by an instinct, foresees what buds it is necessary to take off in order to put a limit to the increase or height, and what amount of trimming is necessary to give a chance to the proper quantity of leaves. But the principal care, and that which occupies him in his waking hours, is the extermination of the voracious insects that persecute the plant. One called _cachaga_ domesticates itself at the foot of the leaves; the _verde_, on the under side of the leaves; the _rosquilla_, in the heart of the plant; all of them doing more or less damage. The planter passes entire nights, provided with lights, clearing the buds just opening, of these destructive insects. He has even to carry on a war with still worse enemies,--the _vivijagnas_, a species of large, native ants, that are to the tobacco what the locust is to the wheat. This plague is so great, at times, that prayers and special adoration are offered up to San Marcial to intercede against the plague of ants. "The plant, whose original name was _cohiba_, seems to have been cultivated first by Europeans on the island in the vicinity of Havana. The island of Cuba is without doubt well adapted for the cultivation of tobacco--the soil, climate, and improved methods of culture all tend to the production of a leaf tobacco as celebrated as it is valuable. [Illustration: Killing bugs by night.]