The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1909-01-29

"The superior burning qualities of
the Hawaiian-gro Cuban leaf will
sell it in any market, and four years
out of five Cuban leaf will not burn.
"The maintenance of the present
duties on tobacco are necessary If a
tobacco industry is to be built up in
Hawaii. Brazil grows just as good to.
bacco as Cuba and has twenty times
the area of tobacco lands in Cuba,
Porto Rico and Hawaii combined. A
reduction of the duty on tobacco would
bring ruin to the whole tobacco indus.
try of the United States, and Brazil
alone would do to the whole of the
American tobacco industry what she
has done on smaller financial scale
to the coffee industry of Hawaii, Porto
Rico and the Philippines.
"The American tobacco industry is
an enormous one, the total production
of the United States exceeding $780,.
100000 pounds. The production of
domestic cigar leaf exceeds 300,000,000
pounds annually This gigantic indus.
try would be wiped out if the duty
should be removed from foreign to-
baccos.
sumatra Tobacco.
"The Sumatra tobacco coming to the
American market is a wrapper leaf
only. The United States imports about
10000 bales (of 10 pounds) annually.
"The total yield of the Deli district
of Sumatra in 1900 was $4,000 bales,
amounting to 36,915,0OO pounds, valued
at thirty cents per pound.
"The duty paid is $1.S5 per pound
on wrapper and $3.50 per pound on
stemmed wrapper.
"England is the chief buyer of Su-
matra wrapper leaf; then, in order,
Germany, Austria, the United States
and France. The duty on Sumatra to.
bacco imported into the United States
averages $l2,500,000 per annum.
"The average yield of Sumatra to-
bacco is about 750 pounds per acre.
There are about $4,000 acres planted in
Sumatra.
"The qualities of wrapper leaf are
that the tobacco should be extremely
thin, silky, elastic, of good body and
burn, but without flavor and aroma.
For the American market the colors
must be 'claro' and the sizes extraor-
dinarily large.
| "The European market which alb.
serbs eighty-three per cent. of the Su.
matra crop, takes dark colors, and
! lengths mostly under sixteen inches.
The American market takes all light
colors and lengths over sixteen inches.
The demand for 'claro' is SO strong in
the United States that Sumatra plan.
ters are adopting hothouse methods to
produce enormous leaves.
"The average of the first grade Of
Sumatra wrappers is so high as to size
and delicate sickness and thinness that
one pound of leaf will cover sixty five
to seventy square feet.
"The cultivation of Sumatra wrap.
per leaf under cloth has for its OBJ
ject the stimulation of tropical out-of-
doors climatic conditions, all to pro-
duce large thin, silky leaves in light
colors, such as the American market de-
! mands.
"The labor conditions in Sumatra
are interesting.
'"The Mexican dollar, valued at ap-
proximately $3.50 gold, is the wage
unit. The laborers are Chinese coolies
and Kings from Madras, India. The
coolies are employed under three-year
contracts, the contracts quasi-free, but
no laberer can leave Sumatra unless he
is provided with passport indorsed
by his last employer.
"The wages during the first year of
the contract are $40 Mexican per an
nun. The laborers, if green hands
plant no tobacco the first year, but are
employed in clearing land, building
bitches, roads and preparing the fields
for cultivation.
"The second and third years the
coolies are paid at the rate of $50 tc
$50 Mexican for the nine months OF
the tobacco campaign, and $40 Mexican
J for the remaining three months of the
year"