Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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These Differences Are Great; And If,
Instead Of Meteorological Instruments, We Consulted Only Our Own
Feelings, We Should Suppose They Were Still More Considerable.
The vegetation of the plain which surrounds the town is monotonous,
but, owing to the extreme humidity of the air, remarkable for its
freshness.
It is chiefly characterized by an arborescent solanum,
forty feet in height, the Urtica baccifera, and a new species of
the genus Guettarda.* (* These trees are surrounded by Galega
pilosa, Stellaria rotundifolia, Aegiphila elata of Swartz,
Sauvagesia erecta, Martinia perennis, and a great number of
Rivinas. We find among the gramineous plants, in the savannah of
Cumanacoa, the Paspalus lenticularis, Panicum ascendens, Pennisetum
uniflorum, Gynerium saccharoides, Eleusine indica, etc.) The ground
is very fertile, and might be easily watered if trenches were cut
from a great number of rivulets, the springs of which never dry up
during the whole year. The most valuable production of the district
is tobacco. Since the introduction of the farm* (* Estanco real de
tabaco, royal monopoly of tobacco.) in 1779, the cultivation of
tobacco in the province of Cumana is nearly confined to the valley
of Cumanacoa; as in Mexico it is permitted only in the two
districts of Orizaba and Cordova. The farm system is a monopoly
odious to the people. All the tobacco that is gathered must be sold
to government; and to prevent, or rather to diminish fraud, it has
been found most easy to concentrate the cultivation in one point.
Guards scour the country, to destroy any plantations without the
boundaries of the privileged districts; and to inform against those
inhabitants who smoke cigars prepared by their own hands.
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