164 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. 



that the petition was properly presented, it would be very 

 likely to be granted. But another gentleman remarked, very 

 properly, that it would be a very difficult thing to get sign- 

 ers to put down the money. I am afraid that is a peculiaiity 

 of our farmers, as a rule. It is not a peculiarity of the deal- 

 ers, because the dealers in tobacco are as anxious to have 

 Sumatra tobacco pushed out of the market as are the raisers, 

 for the reason that the dealers are not allowed to handle the 

 Sumatra tobacco at all, the whole of it being handled by a 

 German syndicate, who sell it to the manufacturers by sample. 



The Chairman. What are binders? 



Mr. Graves. The binder is the leaf that wraps the filler 

 immediately inside the wrapper, which is the outside. 



Mr. West. What would be a fair price for Havana 

 tobacco raised here in the valley ? 



Mr. Graves. I should say that would depend very much 

 upon the quality. 



Mr. West. Supposing it is good ? 



Mr. Graves. Twenty cents a pound. 



Mr. Ware. I confess I feel somewhat puzzled. Mr. 

 Smith presented us this morning with the cost and the value 

 of two crops of tobacco that I supposed were brought 

 forward as premium crops. One was fifteen hundred weight 

 to the acre, and the other eighteen hundred weight — very 

 large crops, as I understand ; and in summing up the net 

 profit on those crops, he said that in one case it was nineteen 

 dollars per acre, and in the other forty dollars per acre. 

 Now, Mr. Graves has told us that the growing of tobacco 

 has brought more money into this beautiful valley than any- 

 thino- else that has ever been grown here ; that it has lifted the 

 burden of debt and mortgage from more farms than any other 

 crop, and has developed the farmers and the people generally 

 of this valley more than any other interest. I cannot see how 

 so much money has been made and how so many farms 

 have been redeemed from debt by a profit of from nineteen 

 to forty dollars an acre. Why, it seems to me that the 

 profit on a crop of white beans would be more than that, es- 

 pecially this last year. That is what I have failed to under- 

 stand. If Mr. Graves will please explain, I should be very 

 glad. 



