PRODUCTION AND COMMERCE. 225 



The exports from San Domingo in 1884 were 

 10,513,940 lb., value 669,500 dollars. 



According to a recent Consular Report, it would seem 

 that " Cuban tobacco has lost its prestige through forcing 

 and artificial manures, and has to sustain sharp compe- 

 tition from abroad where it formerly commanded the 

 market; and probably some years must elapse before 

 the soil can recover from the excessive and indiscriminate 

 use of artificial fertilizers. 



" A few years ago the leaf harvested in the Vuelta Abajo 

 was not sufficient to meet the large demand, and in order 

 to increase the yield, growers made use of guanos of all 

 sorts, and with such bad results that they find it now 

 difficult to place on reasonable terms more than half, and 

 sometimes less, of their crops, at very low prices ; in few 

 localities only the soil has not been spoilt by spurious 

 manures, and the leaf grown there commands very high 

 prices and is warmly competed for by local manufacturers 

 and buyers for the United States. 



" Notwithstanding the last crop has been of a better 

 quality than heretofore, growers were compelled to 

 abandon the tobacco cultivation for a certain time, and 

 devote the ground to other purposes. 



" It appears that this change of cultivation is absorbing 

 the fertilizers, and restoring to the soil its former good 

 qualities, and, if one can judge from the splendid appear- 

 ance of the leaf and the ready sale it now meets with, 

 it would seem that the Vuelta Abajo fields are regaining 

 their former renown. 



" This has been a hard but healthy lesson the Vegueros 

 are not likely to forget. The soil cannot and should 



Q 



