The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-09-03
hS EXPERT TALKS.
Interesting to Connecticut Tobaeeo Grow.

Interesting to Connecticut Tobaeeo Crow E, H. Smith. Springfield man, has recently returned from Holland. where he has been attending the great annual tobacco sales in Amsterdam. and in conversation with a Republican report CT he gave an interesting account of that prodigious tobacco market, which has particular importance for tobacco growers In this region. Amsterdam and Rotterdam are the chief head quarters for Sumatra tobacco. which is the principal. almost the only. rival of the Connecticut valley tobacco for wrappers in this part of the country. The tobacco Is sold at Inscriptions" or private auctions, which are held twice month through the summer, rom May to October, perhaps dozen in all. Samples are on exhibition for a week before each inscription" at the offices of the ten brokers who do all the business in the city, the company which controls all the tobacco sending sets of samples to each broker. The day be- Tore the inscription the samples are all brought to the "Frascatti" or auction room, and shown together in this large open room. where buyers gather from all parts of the world to take a final look. On the day of the sale all the samples are removed and attention Is connned strictly to bidding, which Is conducted by secret auction, each buy CT inclosing his figures in an envelope. The Dutch are altogether too shrewd business men. says MT. Smith, to sell the tobacco in open market.
 The day MT. Smith attended eight cen thousand bales of Sumatra were sold, each bale weighing about 175 pounds. As a rule they were sold in lots of from one hundred to five hun dred bales. Of course the quality va ries greatly. The American buyers are Keen after the fancy marks with extra light colors and nice spots. That is the only kind which 1t pays to import here, because the duty makes 1t impossible for the cheaper lots to compete with domestic wrappers. The darker leaves are in large part sold in Germany, which also buys great deal of Java and Brazil tobacco in Holland. The Brazil is cheap cigar tobacco of fair quality. used both for wrappers and fillers
 The history of the use of Sumatra to- bacco in this country is somewhat in- teresting. Some experiments were made to introduce it about fifteen years ago, but with rather poor success, and the attempts were abandoned, About twelve years ago, however it began to gain place, and since then it has met with steadily increasing favor till now it Is the great wrapper tobacco in this country as well as in Europe. The Connecticut valley tobacco is of as good quality and is thought by some to taste better, but it Is not so silky in texture nor so thin, and it is not supposed to burn quite so well.
 At present the great obstacle in the way of the general introduction of su- matra wrappers is the tariff, which was raised by the Mckinley bill from 35 cents to $2, and is reduced by the new tariff act to $1.50. A reduction of one dollar was confidently expected by the Sumatra importers, and this was con- tained in the original bill. MT. Smith does not think that the present reduc- tion is enough to make any great diff ference in the amount imported, or make it possible to take out of the warehouse the immense quantities of cheaper grades now stored under bond. It is estimated that there are thirty thousand bales still in New York, rep- resenting a value of nearly eight mill lion dollars, good part of which will have to be sent back to Holland.