180 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 193. 



ducing far below normal. This means that the United States must supply 

 this enormous tobacco deficit. But how well prepared are we at the present 

 time to supply this deficit? Our position in regard to cigar leaf is in- 

 dicated in the following table: — 



The total stocks of cigar leaf tobacco in the hands of nmanufacturers 

 and dealers have steadily decreased in the last few years. The quantity 

 on hand on Jan. 1, 1917, amounted to 231,737,847 pounds, and on Jan. 

 1, 1918, to 223,432,876 pounds, a decrease of 8,354,971 pounds in one year. 

 Since Oct. 1, 1915, the stocks of cigar leaf tobacco have decreased 

 111,934,781 pounds, or 33 per cent. The decrease in New England has 

 not been so rapid as in New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia and 

 Florida. The states of New York and Pennsylvania are by far the largest 

 manufacturers of cigars in the United States, New York alone having re- 

 ceived over 18,000,000 pounds of Connecticut valley leaf in 1916 to say 

 nothing of large receipts from other cigar producing states. 



The above figures only partly tell the story. They represent the quan- 

 tity of leaf tobacco reported as held by manufacturers and dealers who, 

 according to the returns of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, manu- 

 factured during the preceding calendar year more than 250,000 cigars, 

 or had on hand more than 50,000 pounds of tobacco. What about the 

 small manufacturers who, in the scramble for the 1916 and 1917 crops, were 

 unable to get their quota? Since the war the large manufacturers have 

 entered the field on a wholesale scale, and have outbid the smaller con- 

 cerns for the leaf. Consequently, if we could take into account the 

 smaller dealers and manufacturers, this reduction in cigar leaf would be 

 even more striking. 



