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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It
Would Be Better If The Leaves Were Plucked Only As They Dry.
In
good years the cultivators cut the plant when it is only four feet
high; and the shoot which springs from the root, throws out new
leaves with such rapidity that they may be gathered on the
thirteenth or fourteenth day.
These last have the cellular tissue
very much extended, and they contain more water, more albumen and
less of that acrid, volatile principle, which is but little soluble
in water, and in which the stimulant property of tobacco seems to
reside.
At Cumanacoa the tobacco, after being gathered, undergoes a
preparation which the Spaniards call cura seca. The leaves are
suspended by threads of cocuiza;* (* Agave Americana.) their ribs
are taken out, and they are twisted into cords. The prepared
tobacco should be carried to the king's warehouses in the month of
June; but the indolence of the inhabitants, and the preference they
give to the cultivation of maize and cassava, usually prevent them
from finishing the preparation before the month of August. It is
easy to conceive that the leaves, so long exposed to very moist
air, must lose some of their flavour. The administrator of the farm
keeps the tobacco deposited in the king's warehouses sixty days
without touching it. When this time is expired, the manoques are
opened to examine the quality. If the administrator find the
tobacco well prepared, he pays the cultivator three piastres for
the aroba of twenty-five pounds weight.
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