

CULTIVATION OF TOBACCO. 



INTRODUCTION. 



In the present paper an effort will be made to describe briefly the 

 methods employed in modern cultivation of tobacco, to treat of recent 

 successes in growing tobacco under shade in the United States, and also 

 describe the conditions of tobacco culture in Sumatra with especial 

 reference to the industry in the Philippines. 



In the preparation of this paper the bulletins of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture relating to the cultivation of tobacco have 

 been very freely used and much information has been obtained from the 

 gentlemen connected with the leading tobacco companies in Manila. 



Philippine tobacco has long been held in high esteem in the Orient, 

 and Manila cigars maintain the same rank in eastern countries that 

 Havana cigars occupy in Europe and America. To-day tobacco stands 

 third among the exports from the Philippines. During the year 

 1900, according to the Monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance of 

 the United States, 11,743,336 kilos of tobacco, valued at $1,906,436, 

 United States currency, were exported from the Islands. Tobacco was 

 introduced into the Philippines shortly after the Spaniards took pos- 

 session, seed having been brought from Mexico by Spanish missionaries. 

 Little effort was made by the Government to restrict or encourage the 

 cultivation of tobacco until 1781, when the cultivation and sale of tobacco 

 was decreed a State monopoly. While this monopoly was in force, 

 the natives in the large tobacco districts of Luzon were subjected 

 to great inconveniences and even hardships. Each family was com- 

 pelled to grow 4,000 plants and deliver the entire crop to the agents of 

 .the government. None of the crop could be reserved for the use of the 

 planter, and a fine was imposed when the crop was short. After the 

 crop was harvested the leaves were selected and bought by Government 

 agents, and bundles of inferior leaves were rejected and burned. Native 

 houses were searched for concealed tobacco and fines and penalties 

 imposed on those who did not comply with all the requirements of the 

 monopoly. Early in the nineteenth century many riots and disturbances 

 arose out of the difficulties in meeting the harsh provisions of the law. 



In the Visayan and southern Islands the monopoly was not in force, 

 but tobacco raising was not generally practiced until the middle of the 



