Curing and Fermenting Tobacco 287 
lable harm, and it is at such times probably 
that this pest of all (tobacco) pests starts its 
campaign of mischief-making, which is estimated 
to annually cost Manila only from $3,000 to 
$6,500 (or £600 to £1,300) per factory for 
cigars actually destroyed in the factory alone.’ 
For this reason I believe that it will be greatly 
to the interest of tobacco planters in all parts 
of the world to look into this matter of ferment- 
ing and otherwise curing their tobacco, and to 
see if it cannot be done in such a way as to 
effectually prevent the beetle obtaining access 
to the leaves. As the whole question of doing 
so is of such paramount importance to the 
success of the industry generally, I have 
dragged the matter into this book in a way | 
should not otherwise have done, simply because 
I feel that if the beetle is to be kept away 
from the tobacco at the start, new methods 
will have to be introduced to supersede the 
old ones, or if already introduced into some 
1 « This,” Mr. Jones tells us elsewhere, ‘‘ represents 
but a small fraction of the real loss, for these figures do 
not include the shipment of infested cigars, which gives 
a bad reputation to Manila cigars, and leads to a far 
greater loss to the factory than does any occasional 
. waste in goods or damage due directly to the beetle. 
The Annual Report of the Bureau of Customs (Manila), 
during the fiscal year 1911, shows a decrease in the 
exportation to the United States, of tobacco and 
tobacco products, from pesos 4,023,404, in Ig10, to 
pesos 1,483,544 in 1911. (peso = Mexican dollar, or 
about 2s.) The bulk of this decrease can undoubtedly 
be attributed directly to the cigarette beetle.” 
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