

6 FARMERS' BULLETIN. 



nineteenth century. The profits from the monoply annually amounted 

 to several million pesos, but was finally abolished on December 31, 

 1882. Since that time the cultivation and manufacture of the crop has 

 been in the hands of private individuals and companies. At the present 

 time the greater part of the tobacco grown in the Islands comes from 

 Luzon. The products of Isabela and Cagayan Provinces are the most 

 highly esteemed, while considerable quantities are produced in Union 

 and the Ilocos Provinces, on the west coast of northern Luzon. Nueva 

 Ecija formerly raised a fair grade of tobacco, but the cultivation has 

 fallen off in late years. The writer saw in Batangas Province many 

 small fields that would aggregate many hundreds of hectares of tobacco. 

 This is largely used for local consumption, and is of inferior quality. 

 Tobacco is grown in small quantities in the Visayan and southern islands, 

 the greatest amounts probably being produced in Masbate, Tablas, Panay, 

 Bohol, Leyte, Siquijor, Negros, and Mindanao. 



Philippine tobacco is nearly all utilized in the manufacture of cigars 

 and cigarettes, and finds a ready sale in Spain (which consumes more than 

 one-half of the total production), England, Hongkong (where it is 

 shipped to Asiatic ports), and British East India. During the year 

 1900 these countries bought more than seven-tenths of the entire crop. 

 The agreeable aroma and flavor of the better grades of tobacco grown in 

 the Islands have won for it a high place among the fine cigar tobaccos 

 of the world, and, for a long time, it ranked next to the celebrated Cuban 

 tobacco. When we consider the desirable qualities of Philippine tobac- 

 co, with the imperfect cultivation, curing, and fermentation it receives, 

 and the improvements and advances that have been made in other 

 tobacco countries, it becomes at once evident that every 'care and attention 

 should be given the crop to enable it to regain its former position, if not 

 to make it superior to the finest tobaccos grown in the world. 



The markets of the United States offer every inducement for the 

 improvement and spread of the Philippine tobacco industry. This 

 becomes all the more evident when we consider the vast sums of money 

 annually expended by the United States for foreign tobacco. During the 

 year ending June 30, 1900, the United States, according to official 

 statistics of the agricultural imports of the United States, paid for Cuban 

 tobacco $7,615,991, United States currency, and $4,569,271, United 

 States currency, for Sumatra tobacco. During this same year the Philip- 

 pines exported to the United States only a few hundreds of dollars worth 

 of tobacco, or less than one-hundredth of one per cent of the tobacco 

 importations of that country. While it may be true that Philippine 

 tobacco may never entirely supplant Cuban and Sumatra tobacco in the 

 United States, there is certainly every inducement to encourage and 

 improve the industry until modern cultural methods have realized to 

 the fullest extent the highest perfection of the crop. 



