PRODUCTION AND COMMERCE. 193 



tobacco indtistiy. The imports here in 1878 were : — 

 123 hilo. from Germany, 304,538 hilo. from the United 

 States, and 6,776,900 hilo. from Spanish colonies; the 

 exports were 15,600 hilo. to Germany, and 213,846 hilo. 

 to France. Corunna exported 58,280 hilo., value 87,420 

 pesetas, in 1884. Cadiz exported 514,817 hilo., value 

 2,574,085 pesetas, in the same year. 



Sumatra. — This great island is assuming a first-rate 

 importance in the tobacco industry. 



The year 1888 was an exceptionally favourable one, 

 as the harvest in Sumatra was very good, while prices 

 for Java tobacco were higher than of late years, in cun- 

 sequence of the short harvest of 1882. 



Large quantities of Sumatra tobacco found buyers in 

 the United States, in consequence of the protectionist 

 measure introduced in that country in favour of the 

 home tobacco producers. The duty was raised from 35 c. 

 to 75 c. per lb. on and after the 1st July, 1883, and great 

 efforts were made to import as much as possible at the 

 lower duty before that date. 



The principal owners of the plantations are Dutchmen, 

 and the labour employed is Chinese coolies, brought to 

 the island principally from the Malaya peninsula. The 

 crop, according to one of these successful planters, is 

 scarcely ever reared two years in succession on the same 

 lands. The jungle is first cleared, and then the seed 

 planted. After the first crop of tobacco is gathered, it 

 is the next season used for rice, or something else, and 

 tobacco is not planted again until the sixth or seventh 

 year after the jungle is cleared. By adopting this method, 

 a better result is obtained. 



