THE DARK-FIRED TYPE OF TOBACCO. 35 
are practically all of this dark-fired type, and the total purchases of 
this type by these countries is thus accurately known. 
Next to the plug wrappers mentioned above, Austria and Italy 
take the highest grade leaf of this type. Their requirements are for 
a leaf of good size, smooth, with plenty of life and elasticity, fine, and 
with solid, uniform color. This tobacco is used in the manufacture 
of cigars. The finest leaves are used for wrappers and other grades 
for filler purposes. Austria demands a lighter brown color than Italy, 
and generally pays a somewhat higher price. The larger percentage 
of the Austrian leaf is obtained in the Virginia dark districts while 
most .of the Italian leaf is obtained from the Clarksville, Hopkins- 
ville, and Paducah districts of Kentucky and Tennessee. 
Austria-Hungary takes on the average, according to their own 
trade reports (nearly all goes to the Austrian Régie), about 6,000,000 
or 7,000,000 pounds of leaf tobacco annually from the United States, 
all of the better grades of this dark-fired type. 
Italy generally takes from 30,000,000 to 40,000,000 pounds an- 
nually, practically all of which is also of the good to best grades of 
the dark-fired type. 
Germany and the German ports, principally Bremen, are also 
important outlets for large quantities of the medium to good grades 
of dark-fired leaf, constituting the larger portion of the 30,000,000 to 
40,000,000 pounds of imports of leaf tobacco from the United States. 
The German grades are obtained particularly from the Clarksville 
district in Kentucky and Tennessee, and also in the Lynchburg sec- 
tion of the Virginia dark district. 
The United Kingdom is the heaviest single purchaser of the dark- 
fired type of tobacco. The total purchases of all types amount 
annually to 100,000,000 pounds or more, of which about 50 per cent 
is of the dark-fired type. The great source of supply of British dark | 
leaf, however, is in the Henderson or Stemming district of western 
Kentucky, although buyers for the English trade are active pur- 
chasers also in all the other dark-fired districts in Kentucky, Ten- 
nessee, and Virginia. Great Britain takes a number of grades of 
dark felbaxaeo, including the low, medium, and high grades. 
The Pech import duty is very high, 88 cents a pound in 1910, 
and in order to offset this as much as possible, it has been the custom 
to stem the tobacco in this country before shipment, so as to reduce 
the weight of the tobacco paying the high duty. The Stemming dis- 
trict received its name because so large a percentage of tobacco pro- 
duced there was stemmed preparatory to shipment to Great Britain. 
A differential duty on strips has in recent years materially reduced 
the percentage of tobacco that is fearon! before shipment to Great 
Britain. 
244 
