Curing and Fermenting Tobacco 287 



lable harm, and it is at such times probably 

 that this pest of all (tobacco) pests starts its 

 campaign of mischief-making, which is estimated 

 to annually cost Manila only from $3,000 to 

 $6,500 (or ^600 to ,1,300) per factory for 

 cigars actually destroyed in the factory alone. 1 

 For this reason I believe that it will be greatly 

 to the interest of tobacco planters in all parts 

 of the world to look into this matter of ferment- 

 ing and otherwise curing their tobacco, and to 

 see if it cannot be done in such a way as to 

 effectually prevent the beetle obtaining access 

 to the leaves. As the whole question of doing 

 so is of such paramount importance to the 

 success of the industry generally, I have 

 dragged the matter into this book in a way I 

 should not otherwise have done, simply because 

 I feel that if the beetle is to be kept away 

 from the tobacco at the start, new methods 

 will have to be introduced to supersede the 

 old ones, or if already introduced into some 



1 " This," Mr. Jones tells us elsewhere, " represents 

 but a small fraction of the real loss, for these figures do 

 not include the shipment of infested cigars, which gives 

 a bad reputation to Manila cigars, and leads to a far 

 greater loss to the factory than does any occasional 

 waste in goods or damage due directl) 7 to the beetle. 

 The Annual Report of the Bureau of Customs (Manila), 

 during the fiscal year 1911, shows a decrease in the 

 exportation to the United States, of tobacco and 

 tobacco products, from pesos 4,023,404, in 1910, to 

 pesos 1,483,544 in 1911. (peso = Mexican dollar, or 

 about 2s.) The bulk of this decrease can undoubtedly 

 be attributed directly to the cigarette beetle." 



