CONSIDERATIONS OF CIGAR LEAF. 381 



imported from other countries is mainly fillers. There 

 is no longer doubt but that the United States can pro- 

 duce an abundance of both fillers and wrappers, and it is 

 not surprising that American farmers should insist upon 

 having the American market for all grades of cigar leaf. 

 It will be seen that during the 12 years for which statis- 

 tics are given, nearly $150,000,000 has been paid out for 

 this imported leaf. More than one-third of this has 

 been for Sumatran wrappers, which displace the Ameri- 

 can product. Since 1885, the average importation of 

 this Sumatran intruder has been 4,775,000 pounds annu- 

 ally. As only about two pounds of it are required to 

 wrap 1000 cigars, the supply has been sufficient to cover 

 an average of over 2300 million cigars annually, or more 

 than half the average production of cigars in the United 

 States. The wonder is, that our domestic cigar wrapper 

 leaf industry has stood up so well under such terrific 

 and unfair competition. 



It is now evident, however, that higher duties on 

 wrapper leaf are likely to prevail for years to come. 

 Meanwhile, there is a more confident feeling among 

 growers in the future of the cigar-leaf industry, the 

 more so because of the immense development of cigar 

 manufacture and consumption, as set forth in Chapter 

 II. But the marvelous profits of the Sumatran tobacco 

 syndicates have directed the attention of other countries 

 to the possibilities of growing tobacco for cigar purposes. 

 Borneo, Manilla and other Eastern islands are experiment- 

 ing extensively and intelligently, while Mexico, Central 

 America and certain sections of South America are giving 

 more attention to the same industry. In Mexico, quite 

 a boom in cigar-leaf tobacco culture has been developed 

 during the past few years, and some of the Mexican leaf 

 is of promising quality, in spite of the crude conditions 

 under which it is grown. We may see quite a develop- 

 ment of cigar-leaf culture in the Hawaiian islands also. 



