Water Valley progress., 1897-05-01
A MILLION TONS
OF Tobacco Goes Up in Smoke\h,
World Over Every Year.

y
Spain isnot a wealthy country. an
her four per cent. bonds, guaranteed
by the government and protected bA
the security of public property and
the revenues from customs and local
taxes, are sellingat 50 cents on the dol
lar. But the people of Spain last
year land not the male inhabitants OF
the Spanish peninsula exclusively
smoked $31 100000 worth of to-
bacco, an average of $1.S0 for each
inhabitant. The total consumption
CT tobacco in Spain in year for Gig
arettes (Which are very popular), Gig
ars and snuff is 10000 tons, the
same quantity that is consumed in
Italy, country with nearly twice the
population of Spain. The SpaniarA
are greater smokers than the ltal-
ians, as these figures show, and they
use, too, it may be added, much
better quality of tobacco, or, more
properly speaking, they use more of
the better quality. One-third of the
tobacco used in Italy is raised, so to
speak, on the premises, and its excel
lence is not such that there is large
foreign demand for it.
The consumption of tobacco in the
United Kingdom amounts in a year
to about $4,000 tons, and in France
to 10000 tons, disparity which is
much greater than the difference in
population ,and has been steadily grow
ing of late years. At the beginning
of the present century more tobacco
was used per capita in England than
France, but gradually and steadily
the French per capita consumption
has increased, owing, some think, to
the fact that for more than eighty
years the sale Of tobacco in any form
in France has been government mos
nopoly, the profits from which have
gone tow ard the reduction Of taxation,
and the business of which has been
greatly stimulated by legislation. An
enormous quantity of tobacco,
amounting in a year to $4,000 tons,
is consumed in Germany, and the
Germans, it is to be observed, are rath-
er pipe than cigarette smokers, cut to-
bacco in Germany being the chief
item of demand. Germany raises
about 40 per cent. of the tobacco
which its people use, and imports the
other 60. Germany is the country of
pipe smokers, as the United States
is, beyond all other countries, the
land of cigar smokers. And when
the figures Of foreign countries are
compared with those of the United
States, the extent Of the American
consumption may be judged readily.
There were collected as revenue last
year by the treasury department taxes
ON tobacco to the amount Of $40, ,00O,-
OOO-$12, 10000 en- cigars, 81, ,6OO,-
600 on cigarettes, $65O,OOO on snuff,
and thebalance, ST. /, $50, 900, onsmok-
ing and chewing tobacco. The Amer
lean product Of tobacco amounts in
year to 250,0O0 tons, or about one
quarter Of the whole tobacco product
Of the world. The exports Of Amer
ican tobacco are about $50, 900 tons,
OF which Holland, Belgium, England
and Germany are the chief. consum-
ers. The imports Of tobacco into the
United States, chiefly from Cuba and
from the Dutch possessions, amount
to IL, 900 tons year. Since the begin
ming of the Cuban war the amount of
tobacco imported has sdecreased. Hol-
land uses in proportion to its popu-
lation more tobacco than does any
other country in the world, the aver
age consumption being 100 ounces
a year for each inhabitant. Bel
siuin averages so, Turkey 70 and the
United States so. Although the
habit is no longer SO generally diff
fused as it once was, the United
States holdsthe unenviable positionof
being first among the nations in the
amount of chewing tobacco used
NJ " Sun