AMERICAN TOBACCO TYPES, USES, AND MARKETS Ike: 
Changes in individual consumption habits are somewhat obscured by 
effects on total quantities growing out of changes in population. This 
is brought out more clearly in the next section. 
CoNSUMPTION PER CAPITA 
The two measures of consumption of manufactured tobacco prod- 
ucts—total and per capita—should be considered together for a more 
complete understanding of the economic aspects of tobacco consump- 
tion. Because of the effect of increasing population, the total con- 
sumption of a commodity may continue to expand for a considerable 
period after a downward trend has begun in the consumption per 
capita. Such a downward trend may in fact mark the initial stages 
of declining popular favor in that particular commodity and be of 
greatest significance to producers and others concerned. Yet, until 
the movement has gathered considerable momentum, its presence and 
effects may be obscured by further increases in total consumption 
resulting from increases in population. 
An example of the above point is provided by statistics of the con- 
sumption of cigars and chewing tobacco. The high point in annual 
per capita consumption of cigars was reached in 1907 when it amounted 
to 86.4 cigars. Since that time the consumption of cigars per capita 
has fluctuated up and down, mostly down. The low point of 36.5 
was reached in 1933. With improving economic conditions consump- 
tion has increased since that year (table 36). 
The high point in total cigars manufactured, which is roughly 
equivalent to consumption, was reached in 1920, 13 years after the 
turning point indicated in the table on per capita consumption. 
Since 1920 the effects of increasing population have not been sufficient 
to offset the effects of decreasing consumption per capita, and the 
trend of total consumption has been downward. 
In chewing tobacco, as in cigars, the decline of the industry was 
foreshadowed by the decrease in consumption per capita years before 
the statistics of total manufactures registered a downward trend. 
In 1890 the per capita consumption of chewing tobacco, other than 
scrap chewing, reached its high point (2.8 pounds), since which time 
there has been an almost uninterrupted decline. Yet the high point 
in total manufactures was not reached until 1917 when 205,874,000 
pounds of plug, twist, and fine cut chewing tobacco were manufactured. 
Since that time the decline has been so rapid that in 1940 manufac- 
tures amounted to only 58,540,570 pounds, a decrease of 71.5 percent 
in 23 years. 
Changes in per capita consumption may occur in various ways, 
such as increases or decreases in the quantities that actual tobacco 
users consume, or changes in the ratio of actual smokers (using the 
term to include all tobacco users) to total population, and possibly 
also changes in the form in which tobacco is consumed. As to the 
latter, one study ” indicates strongly that the average cigarette 
smoker consumes less tobacco per day or year than a cigar smoker or 
chewer. The same comparison probably holds as between cigarette 
and pipe smokers. There may be a physiological basis for this in 
the practice of inhaling cigarette smoke. Owing to the high percent- 
2 Statistical study, as yet unpublished, by CHARLES J. SHOHAN, formerly of the Bureau of Agricul- 
tural Economics. 
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