Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-08-05
CUBA'S TOBACCO KING
Talk With the Chief of Ha-
vana's Great Industry.
FACTS FOR SMOKERS
MOST EXPENSIVE FARMING
LANDS IN THE WORLD.
Fashions in Tobacco as in Everything
Else, but Fortunes for the Man
Who Understands.

NNoPy iiSHt, ioo. w CdTpehter-J
Special Correspondence Of The Star.
HAVANA
1t was In the biggest cigar factory of the
world, situated near the the edge of
Havana, that l met Cuba's tobacco king,
Don Gustavo Book. the president of the
Havana Tobacco Company. This company
controls twenty-three of the leading brands
of Havana cigars, owns 225,OO0 acres of the
finest tobacco lands, and employees 20C0
more men than Xenophon led on his march
to the sea. 1t is an American organiza-
ton, and is perhaps the biggest feature of
our commercial invasion of Cuba. 1t is
now paying interest on about S42 COO coo
worth of stocks and bonds, and is one of
the branches of the American Tobacco
Trust, which represents altogether a capt.
tai of about $4,000, 600, and sells tobacco
to all the world
Don Gustavo Book is a German by birth,
but he speaks English fuently and he has
been SO closely connected with the United
States that he may be considered an Ameri-
can citizen. He came to Cuba with three
companions a the age of twenty His COM
panions died of yellow fever but Mr.. Book
thrived, mastered the tobacco business and
made fortune. He has been interested in
every branch of tobacco production; and IS
today one of the leading authorities of the
world on the raising, manufacturing and
selling of fine tobacco. In our talk l asked
him whether he was not afraid that the
new methods of cultivation would enable
other countries to compete with Cuba in
tobaccos.
Cuban Tobacco Lands.
Cuba has nothing to fear from the rest
of the world was the reply. TT Is not
what have DONE but what God has done
which f;p.
tobacco. There is part of France which
yields the best grapes for champagne, and
there Is pocket of soil along the Rhine
from which comes wine which sells for $40
a bottle. This is so Notwithstanding the
regions adjoining produce grapes which will
not yield more than a 25-cent wine 1t is
the combination of son and climate that
does it. and that combination is such that
man cannot initiate 1t. 1t is the same
here in tobacco. We have a little region
called the Vuelta Abajo in the province of
Pinar del Rio in the western part of the
island. The land lies the sunny side
of the mountains and the soil is such that
it cannot be initiated. We have sent
of the United States Agricultural De-
partment. They have analyzed it, but so
far they have failed to produce a similar
soil anywhere else Even in the Vuelta
Abajo not all the soil is good. There are
some places better than others. The coun-
try has been prospected just like mining
rreSion, and the best paying soil beds are
new known. They are all owned and are
ell used for tobacco raising"
Then the fine tobaccos of Cuba must
always be limited, must they not, Mr..
Bock?"
Yes. The yield of such grades will never
be greater than now. We may increase the
crop by more careful cultivation, but we
cannot increase the area, for the soil does
not exist"
But" said I. 'the population of the
world is increasing. Where are our swells
to get their fine cigars when the globe has
three billion inhabitants instead of fifteen
hundred millions as now?'
II don't know said Mr.. Book, land 1t
don't much matter; for you and l will not
be here to supply them.
How much of Cuba is now in tobacco?"
LESS than 100000 acres, l should say.
About one-tenth of all the land cultivate
is devoted to that crop. Much of this pro-
duces a good tobacco, but not the choicest.
That. as | have said. comes only from the
Eueltas Abajo., the region from where we
get the leaves used in the Havana cigars.
No Cheap Havanas. e.
Are there any cheap Havana cigars?"
There are some classed as such, but they
never saw Cuba. The pure Havana tobacco
costs so much to raise and to manufacture
into cigars that 1t cannot be sold more
cheaply than it is 1t is safe to say that
one cannot buy good Havana cigar any
where in the United States for less than
ten or fifteen cents. Our cigars retail from
ten cents to one dollar each"
What country takes the most high
priced cigars, Mr.. Book? The United
States?'
NO. the best cigars go to England. The
British buy more high-priced cigars than