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The World's Commercial Products 



. -The quality of Cuban 

 tobacco is world-renowned, 

 more especially that known 

 as the Vuelta Abajo, which 

 is used in the manufacture of 

 some of the finest cigars in 

 the market. Innumerable 

 attempts have been made in 

 other districts of Cuba and 

 in other countries to produce 

 this variety, but all have 

 signally failed, and the secret 

 of its superiority remains 

 unsolved. The Sierra de los 

 Organos, a range of moun- 

 tains running along the entire 

 length of the province of 

 Pinar del Rio, is no doubt a 

 potent factor, since it breaks the high winds which do so much damage to the plants else- 

 where. Various other causes have been suggested, and probably they all contribute to 

 the .conditions which produce this excellent tobacco. To what its superiority is especially 

 due will probably be known when the soils on which it has been cultivated for so long 

 have been carefully analysed and compared, and when the chemical changes of the curing 

 and fermentation processes are better understood. 



SORTING CIGARS 



TOBACCO IN SUMATRA 



As has been mentioned above, Sumatra tobacco is especially valued by manufacturers 

 as a wrapper for cigars on account of the fine quality and extreme thinness of the leaf. It 

 is stated that' there are no fewer than two hundred leaves to the pound, and one pound is 

 sufficient for the wrappers of five hundred cigars. Apart from the thinness of the leaf, much 

 of the value of the Sumatra tobacco is dependent upon the peculiar qualities of the soil, and 

 more especially- upon -the • infinite care that is . taken throughout the whole period of its 

 production. A brief account' of T .tHe industry will therefore not be without interest. 



Up to 1862 a tobacco of very good quality had foeen produced in the neighbouring island 

 of- "Jaya, 'and 'the cultivation had' been one of considerable commercial success. About this 

 time, -n'Ow'ever,- prices fell; afid^the planters began to make enquiries as to suitable country 

 for. -raising a' -grade -of tobacco equal in quality to the superior varieties which were 

 driving them from' the, market. Following the advice of an Arab trader, a Dutch planter 

 visited.Delf in the east .coast of- Sumatra, and. was so impressed with the local conditions that 

 in '1864 a Rotterdam company started a plantation' in the neighbourhood and obtained a crop 

 of sbrrie fifty bales. The '.superior- quality of the tobacco attracted the attention of experts 

 to sugIC ah extent that five years later a powerful Dutch syndicate decided to raise tobacco 

 in Sumatra on a large scale. Many companies and private individuals soon followed this lead, 

 and in 'the tobacco district at ' the- present; day" there are nearly forty registered companies 

 arid as -many private -planters.- The 'magnitude of the industry may be gauged from the 

 fact that some companies employ as many as 16,000 coolies, with a staff of white experts num- 

 bering Upwards of- two ^hundred. The fact that the- dividends have been known to reach 

 seventy-fiW : per cent, is* suffifcient proof of the commercial success of the undertakings. 



< T-he^tobacco district of >'Sumatrav borders on the Straits of Malacca, and extends as a belt 

 forty miles wide and five or ten miles back from the coast. The climate is naturally a tropical 



