The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-08-03
CAN GROW
TOBACCO
Jared Smith Talks
of Proposed
Industry.
Island Soils Suited for
Cultivation of
Sumatra.
Preparations Being Made for Ex-
periments on the Louisson
Place.

From our examination of the soils
of Hawaii, 1 believe Sumatra tobac-
CO can be grown in many places-in
the district of Hamakua, on the Wal
kola lands and in Kula on Maui, and
at a profit" said Jared G. Smith, di-
rector of the United States Experiment
station yesterday
The material for the beginning of
the experiment on the Louisson place
has already been ordered, and both
Mr.. Smith and Frank E. Confer will
leave for there within a short time to
begin tobacco cultivation.
"Sumatra tobacco is a plant that
grows to a height of from seven to
eight feet" continued Mr.. Smith. ut
Sumatra for :. good many years, and
the Dutch have had monopoly of the
business All of the Sumatra wrap
pers used in the United States were
imported up to four years ago, when
experiments were begun in the Con-
necticut Valley to ascertain whether
that quality OF tobacco, which was
worth a good deal of money, could be
produced in the United States. There
used to be a good deal CT it imported,
and is yet. In the ten years from 1890
to 1900 there was an average of four
and a half million pounds imported
every year, valued at five million dol
lars, without the duty, which is I
think a dollar and half a pound. AS
late as 1900 the percentage of Suma-
ira wrappers imported formed $3.50
per cent of the entire amount used.
FIRST EXPERIMENTS.
well these experiments were made
and the results were extremely fav-
orable. OF course in no part Of the
United States does the climate at al
resemble that of the island of Suma-
ira, which lies directly under the
equator. Experiments were made al
so in Florida with various fruits
under cover to protect them from
frost, and the idea was also seized
upon, for an attempt to cultivate
tobacco under similar shelters, as had
been used in protecting garden truck,
small fruits. etc. Thin muslin and .
cheese cloth We're used as shelter for ,
Sumatra tobacco, not 20 keep out
frost but to maintain a more even
1.-THE first experiments with grow
ing tobacco under shelter were SO sue
cessful that parties at once under
took the growth o. Sumatra wrapper
and Cuban filler tobacco on a COM
merciaI basis. The cloth manufac-
turing companies who had been max
ng a cheese cloth only a yard wide
llso prepared a special kind of cloth
or this purpose, as the narrow cloth
made the use of it rather expensive.
rhe special cloth was made in widths ;
# IA, 200 and 2SS inches and as long
IS is wanted, and a Hartford manu-
d a letter states that last season he I
old between one and two million {
quare yards of this cloth. And that
rm hasn't a monopoly of the bust
ess either. :
1.-The acreage planted in Sumatra to- S
acco has reached considerable pro- I
ortions in the United States and last :
eason there We're one thousand acres 6
lanted in Connecticut, while there is
lso a considerable acreage under Gull
walton in Florida and Porto Rico. c
NEEDS SKILL.
The quality of a tobacco crop de- E
ends quite largely upon the manipu- {
alton it receives after it has been
arvested. The physical texture of the =
oil upon which. the plant is grown I
bsolutely fixes the class of tobacco. 7
don't mean by this the quality, but :
ne class, whether it is wrapper, filler r
ipe, or plug, depends entirely upon T
he soil Incidentally it may be said T
umatra tobacco isn't worth anything {
kept as a wrapper. Other tobaccos, >,
neither light or heavy, depend upon 7
he soil. The quality whether good a
T bad. depends entirely upon the I
aanipulation-the curing of II.
THE GOOD SOILS. t
We have made a tentative exam
nation Of some Of the soils Of the ISL \
.nds and I believe thAre are regions, 5