8 BULLETIN 137, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



pensive grades of Cuban tobacco. The loss from the beetle in this 

 instance was estimated at not less than $7,000, and the damage oc- 

 curred within a period of only 12 months. At the storerooms of a 

 large jobbing concern in one of the Northern States the writer was 

 shown a lot of smoking and chewing tobacco of various brands said 

 to weigh over one-half ton which was infested and worthless. Part 

 of this tobacco showed injury from mold, but a large part of the 

 damage had been caused by the tobacco beetle. In 1913 a large 

 tobacco firm reported to the Bureau of Entomology that its loss 

 from the beetle amounted to fully $25,000 per annum. The average 

 annual loss in the Philippines per factory for cigars actually de- 

 stroyed in the factory is said to vary from 6.000 to 13,000 pesos 

 ($3,000 to $6,500) (77 j . The total money loss in the Philippines from 

 returned cigars which are infested with the beetle has been reported 

 by Mackie (74) to exceed 500,000 pesos ($250,000 U. S. currency) 

 per annum. The actual money loss to the manufacturers from to- 

 bacco products returned to the factory represents only a small part 

 of the entire loss caused by the beetle. An enormous loss occurs 

 through damage to hogshead tobacco of certain types, and, as in the 

 case of manufactured or baled tobacco, it is impossible to make even 

 an approximate estimate of the loss. In 1911 Mr. J. Matsumura, in- 

 spector of the bureau of monopolies for the Imperial Japanese Gov- 

 ernment, reported that in a shipment of 60 hogsheads of American 

 tobacco to Japan 50 hogsheads had been so badly dama'ged by the 

 beetle that the tobacco was almost worthless. In exported hogshead 

 tobacco the lighter types, such as are used in fche manufacture of 

 cigarettes, are most susceptible to injury, and a comparatively slight 

 infestation at first may result in a heavy infestation after a long 

 sea voyage through warm or tropical waters. The specially favorable 

 breeding conditions brought about by high temperatures and hu- 

 midity incidental to long oversea shipments make the beetle unusu- 

 ally destructive to cigars shipped to the United States from the 

 Philippines. A number of dealers have reported serious loss from 

 this source, the infestation spreading to cigars and other classes of 

 manufactured tobacco kept in stock. 



Although the tobacco beetle is present and causes more or less loss 

 in all parts of the United States, investigations of the Bureau of En- 

 tomology show that damage is greatest in the States bordering on the 

 Gulf of Mexico. One large manufacturer reported that his loss due 

 to infestation of goods, chiefly smoking and chewing tobacco, shipped 

 to the Gulf States had been so great, fully 50 per cent of the manufac- 

 tured tobacco becoming wormy, that his company had been forced to 

 restrict its activities in that section. To replace this damaged stock 

 made their business in that section unprofitable. The factory was 

 said to be practically uninfested, and few complaints of damage 



