20 TOBACCO LEAF. 



one-third of the total receipts from internal revenue tax- 

 ation, and it now yields about one-fifth. Tobacco also 

 yields ten per cent of the total customs receipts, against 

 four per cent under the tariff of 1883. Altogether, 

 tobacco now furnishes fifteen per cent, or nearly one- 

 sixth, of government's total net ordinary receipts. 



The present status of the tobacco industry thus rep- 

 resents immense financial interests. Many millions are 

 invested in tobacco lands, bams, fertilizers, culture, im- 

 plements, labor and warehouses. About $100,000,000 

 are engaged in making cigars, cigarettes and snuff, and 

 in manufacturing tobacco. The growers get, say, from 

 $40,000,000 to $50,000,000 for the crop in its raw state. 

 Aside from vast sums paid for help in the domestic 

 trade, our tobacco factories alone pay in wages over 

 $60,000,000, and their annual product exceeds $200,- 

 000,000 in value. Tobacco is exported, in its raw state, 

 to the average value of $30,000,000, while imports rep- 

 resent about half that sum. Add to this something 

 like $50,000,000 of revenue paid to government, and it 

 appears that the annual stake in the United States to- 

 bacco crop and industry represents the stupendous sum 

 of more than $400,000,000. The duplication in this 

 total is much more than offset by items that manifestly 

 are not included, such as the permanent investment in 

 farms, warehouses, factories and the like. 



Certainly the investment in this tobacco crop and 

 trade, and its annual product, are sufficiently large to 

 raise it to the dignity of one of the most important of 

 American industries. As such, it is well worthy of the 

 most profound attention on the part of planters and 

 agricultural scientists, of dealers and manufacturers, 

 and of statesmen. 



All evidence and experience demonstrates what 

 every intelligent tobacco planter knows that only the 

 best quality, except in rare instances, pays a real profit. 



