34 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY 



HAVANA .TOBACCO^CONDITIONS 



The larger factories have enough order.s on 

 hand to even seat more cigar-makers, tem- 

 porarily at least, but the smaller concerns are 

 still complaining that the number of orders 

 coming forward is in no proportion to what it 

 ^ihould be with the ho'iday season fast ap- 

 proaching. In former years, before the war, 

 nearly all of the factories m Havana were 

 rushed with orders at this period and most 

 of them were obliged to work seven days a 

 week in order to fill their contracts and get 

 shipments out on time. This is not the case 

 at present, and our manufacturers are glad if 

 they can work six days a week, by giving 

 their cigar makers an opportunity to work on 

 full time, without any restriction as to the 

 number of cigars delivered at the end of the 

 day. Whether this activity will last any 

 longer than about six weeks more is hard to 

 forecast, although the pi'obabilities are, that 

 a slacker season may set in early in December. 



The United States is the best customer for 

 Havana manufacturers at present, although 

 up to now Great Britain continues to send us 

 some more orders, principally for the higher 

 priced cigars. The neutral countries evi- 

 dently have increased their trade consider- 

 ably, at the expense of Germany, as the lat- 

 ter country is cut off from direct importa- 

 tions, owing to the vigilance of the British 

 fleet. Trade with South American Republics 

 continues to improve slowly, but steadily. 

 Spain, France, Canada and Australia, while 

 sending some orders, are however greatly 

 Ijehind in their importations of Cuban cigars, 

 as compared with ante bellum times. Even 

 if peace should lie declared soon, which is ex- 

 tremely doubtful, the exhaustion of all the 

 lielligerant nations will be such that the 

 reconstruction work will require many years 

 to come, therefore the prospects for the 

 future are by no means bright, as there is 

 no denying, that cigars from Havana are an 

 article of luxury, and as strict economy will 

 be the rule among all classes of society, the 

 consumption is lilcely to be perforce extremely 

 limited. At least this is the opinion of some 

 of the leading manufacturers, who are thinking 

 ahead of the times to come. 



The local leaf market has been quieter the 

 past week, as no Northern buyers have ar- 



rived this week, and the only buyers have 

 been some of the conunission merchants, who 

 had orders from some of their clients, and the 

 Cuban Land and Leaf Tobacco Co., which 

 has continued to purchase for the cigarette 

 factories of the Henry Clay & Bock & Co. 

 A few of the local cigar manufacturers are 

 continually on the look-out for suitable 

 vegas of last year's Vuelta Abajo growth. 

 Prices rule firm, and the universal belief of the 

 leaf dealers in Havana is that lietter figures 

 are bound to be paid as the season advances. — 

 Havana Correspondence Tobacco. 



CUBAN TOBACCO 



Many complaints have been made to the 

 Department of State of Cuba in regard to the 

 exportation of Cuban tobacco seeds. Cuban 

 tobacco seeds have been used with much suc- 

 cess in the United States, and it is further re- 

 ported that in Uruguay and the Argentine 

 experiments have been made with large 

 quantities of Cuban tobacco seed, and these 

 efforts have been so successful that it is re- 

 quested that the exportation of Cuban 

 tobacco seeds he absolutely prohibited. 



TOBACCO 



The U. S. imports of tobacco were 729,- 

 900 pounds in 1847. These imports in- 

 creased the next year to more than 

 three million pounds. Imports continued 

 to show a general increase and reached 21 

 million pounds in 1890, 40 mi'lion pounds in 

 1907, 68 million pounds in 1913, and fell to 

 61 million pounds in 1914. Cuba is the source 

 of about one-half of the tobacco imports. 

 Other countries supplying large quantities 

 are Germany, the Netherlands, Asiatic and 

 European Turkey, and the United Kingdom. 

 — II. S. Department of Agriculture. 



ADULTERATED WINES 



An investigation of the quality of wines 

 sold in Cuba is now being made, and samples 

 will be sent to the National Laboratory for 

 analysis. Should any wine sold be found to 

 have been mislabled or to have been adul- 

 terated, it would be immediately confiscated 

 by the Health Department. 



