REruRT OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. XLiJi: 



to foster the interest in Texas, where I believe the Cuban type of cigar 

 tiller can be successfully grown, and in Porto Rico, where the methods 

 are crude and where I believe a nuich finer product can be produced 

 than is now grown. 



Business men and private corporations pay salaries from $-1,000 to 

 $6,000 to managers of t()l)acco estates, and it is not possible for the 

 Department to get etlicient men for nmch less than this sum. Such 

 salaries for tobacco experts are not to be considered, however, while 

 the chief of the Division, who directs and coordinates the work, has 

 a statutory salary of only $2,500. Already one expert has left to 

 accept service at a salary over four times as much as the Department 

 was pa3dng him. The tobacco men are demanding that if the work 

 be continued and extended it must l)e by men in whom they have thor- 

 ough confidence and who are well fitted by experience to carry on the 

 work. Such men can not be retained by the Department except for 

 salaries commensurate with what private corporations are paying. As 

 the Department is concerning itself more and more with these large 

 commercial interests, in <jrder that the work shall conform to a high 

 standard and be of the greatest practical value wo must pay as much 

 for experienced men as they can get elsewhere. 



TOBACCO EXHIBIT AT THE I'ARIS EXPOSITION. 



The tobacco exhiljit at Paris was one of the largest and most com- 

 plete exhibits which has ever been made. It contained over 2,000 

 samples, representing all the coumiercial types and grades of tobacco 

 produced in this country, including the various export types and our 

 domestic manufacturing and cigar types. Two very important points 

 came out in the awards of the jury. The Florida-grown Sumatra 

 tobacco was awarded 20 points of merit against IS points for the 

 tobacco su])nutted from the island of Sumatra, and the Florida-grown 

 leaf was admittedly a thinner leaf with much more elasticity. It took 

 twenty-five more leaves in the 16-inch size to make a pound of the 

 domestic than of the foreign-grown leaf. This is a matter for con- 

 gratidation, and will undoubtedly secure a name and a market for the 

 Florida product, w^hich. on account of the prejudice for foreign-grown 

 products, it would have been difficult to secure for the Florida crop. 

 The ])right yellow tobacco of North Carolina was awarded the same 

 number of points as the Turkish tobacco with which it came into 

 competition. 



While it was admitted that the Turldsh tobacco had a more desirable 

 aroma, the North Carolina product, besides closely approximating this, 

 has a larger leaf, which can be used for wrappers as well as for fillers 

 for all tobacco cigarettes and plug. It costs much less to produce 

 and is altogether more of a general-purpose tobacco, and is therefore 

 more desirable. Foreign countries are appreciating this fact, and our 



ACK 11)00 IV 



