Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-07-29
Philippine TOBACCO.
Opportunity for Developing the Bust
ness in the Islands.

| Washington, July 2S.-Professor Clar-
ence w. Dorsey, soil physicist, connect
ed with the Philippine Bureau of Agri-
culture, has prepared a bulletin on the
cultivation of tobacco, which has been
received by the Insular Bureau of the
War Department, and contains many
items of interest relative to tobacco
growing in the Philippines, and also
gives instructions to growers as to the
| best methods of cultivating, harvesting
| and curing the crop. Philippine to-
| bacco has long been held in high esteem
| in the Orient, and Manila cigars main-
| tain the same rank in the eastern cOun-
| tries that Havana cigars occupy in
Europe and America. Today tobacco
stands third among the exports from
the Philippines.
Tobacco was introduced into the
Philippines soon after the Spaniards
took possession, seed having been
| brought from Mexico by missionaries.
Little effort was made by the govern
ment to restrict or encourage the Gull
tivation of tobacco until 1881, when it
became a state monopoly. While the
monopoly was in force each family in
the tobacco districts of LuZon was
compelled to grow 1000 plants and de-
liver the entire crop to the agents of
the government. None of the crop was
reserved fog the use of the planter, and
a fine was Imposed when the crop was
short. After harvest the leaves were
selected and bought by government
agents, and bundles of inferior leaves
We're rejected and burned. Native
houses We're searched for concealed to-
bacco and fines and penalties imposed
on those who failed to comply with the
law. The profits from the monopoly,
finely abolished on December 81, 1882,
annually amounted to several million
pesos.
Since that time the cultivation and
manufacture of the crop has been in
the hands of private individuals and
companies. At the present time the
greater part of the tobacco grown in
the islands comes from Luzon. The
products of Isabella and Cagayan
provinces are the most highly es-
teemed, while considerable quantities
are produced in Union and the Ilocos
provinces, on the west coast of North
ern I.uZon. Nueva Ecija formerly
raised a fair grade of tobacco, but the
CulllNdllOIl Has Idlltll oll Ill ldle YEARS.
Tobacco is grown in small quantities
in the Visayan and southern islands,
the greater amount probably being pro-
duced in Masbate, Tablas, Panay,
Bohol. Leyte, Siquijor Negroes and
Mindanao.
Philippine tobacco is nearly all util-
lied in the manufacture of cigars and
cigarettes, and finds a ready sale in
Spain (Which consumes more than one
half of the total production). England,
Hong Kong (where it Is shipped to
Asiatic ports) and British East India.
During the year 1900 these countries
bought more than seven-tenths of the
entire crop. The agreeable aroma and
flavor of the better grades Of tobacco
grown in the islands have won for it a
high place among the fine cigar to-
baccos of the world, and for a long
time it ranked next to the celebrated
Cuban tobacco. When we consider the
desirable qualities of Philippine to-
bacco, with the imperfect cultivation,
curing and fermentation it receives,
and the improvements and advances
that have been made in other tobacco
countries. 1t becomes at once evident
that every care and attention should be
given the crop to enable it to regain it's
former position, if not to make it su-
perior to the finest tobacco grown in the
world.
The market of the United States
offers every inducement for the i'm
provement and spread of the Philippine
tobacco industry. This becomes all the
more evident when we consider the
vast sums of money annually expend-
ed by the United States for foreign to-
bacco. During the year ended June 80,
1900, the United States paid for Cuban
| tobacco $7,615,99 and $4,569.271 for
Sumatra tobacco. During this same