The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-10-12
TO GROW TOBACCO
IN BRITISH ISLES
Experiments in Cultivation
Are to Last Five
Years

Tobacco" writes the Irish rhyme
ster. 'tis an Indian weed' but however
that may have been it is now being ac-
| it has grown in Ireland and many ex-
-periments are being made in its cnlti-
walton in England.
The patch nearest London is the
eight acres grown by Mr. Trevor Will
liams at Byfleet-about 1900 pounds an
acre-but the largest crop in the king
dom is grown at Fleet, Hampshire, by
Mr. Brandon, chairman of the New To-
| bacco Growers society. At Methwold, in
| Norfolk, Maj. Whitmore has a tobacco
| farm of six acres, growing cigarette to-
| bacco-yellow Orinoco and a little La
| takia says the New York Herald.
The experiment being made by the
| Tobacco Growers society and the devel-
opment commission is to last for five
years. BY the end of that time 1t Is
expected that the question whether to-
bacco can be grown to profit on very
large scale in Britain will be settled.
In the new Nineteenth Century Mr..
J. w. Robertson in an article on
English and Welsh Tobacco" alludes to
the fact that Britain imports 900
worth every year. and says there is no
doubt that tobacco can be grown in Eng
lapd. 1t is not the question of English to-
baeco, he declares, for the tobacco OF
commerce is nearly always blend. The
Irish cigarettes now on the market are a
blend of Irish and foreign tobacco. The
problem is the problem of growing to a
profit.
What are declared to be automatic
methods on the part of the Imperial To-
baceo company, which is believed to con-
troll so per cent. of the business, In this
country, have fostered q discomfort In
the trade which makes conditions favor
able for an American invasion, according
to statement made to the Herald by
Mr.. Henry Jerrold Nathan, a cigar and
cigarette importer.
Mr.. Nathan thinks that if Mr.. John
Surbrug, who is here in London consid-
ering the entrance Of the Tobacco Prod
ucts Corporation of America into the Eng
lish field, were to lay before the inde-
pendent manufacturers a satisfactory
plan of campaign the absorption of many
of the best of them would be an easy task.
1T would also be advantageous to the lat
ter, many of whom are doing little more
than paying their way, and some not
even that The only danger Mr.. Nathan
sees in such a scheme is that ultimately
the two big companies, American and
English might amalgamate or enter into
a working agreement. He thinks legis-
lation should intervene to prevent this
1.-The trader will welcome an opposition
by a powerful combination" said Mr..
Nathan, "as he is dissatisfied at the mis-
erable return which he derives from the
sale of the Imperial goods.
Wholesalers and retailers obtain an
average of 3 per cent gross profit on
the Imperial Tobacco company's proprie-
tary goods. This includes a bonus of L
per cent which they are liable to lose If
they offered the company. If for some
alleged offanse they are blaclxlisted their
names are circulated around the trade
with threat that anybody supplying the
offer erding trader is liable to have his sup
plies stopped. Thus he is boycotted and
unless he can succeed in secretly obtain
ing his supplies he must fall to the
ground.
"a trader will also have his bonus stop
ped if he gives greater prominence in his
windows to an independent manufacture
ers goods, and, as the Imperial holds
nine months bonus in hand, the loss to
the trader of one-third .s his profit is a
factor which at times has a serious effect
upon him financially. The Imperial To-
bacco company has inspectors whose sole
duty is to watch these windows. and the
trader is punished on the ex-parte state
rpent of one of these inspectors. as the
Imperial forms its own bench of judges,
before whom the trader Is denied the
privilege of appearing to refute any state
ment that may be made by these over
jealous officials
when Mr.. Duke came over from
America to capture the English tobacco
trade of 1902 his first move was to pur-
chase Ogden's Liverpool business and
| through his American methods the Og-
| den brands rapidly took the field. This
| brought about the amafgamation of the
| Ogden company and the Imperial, and Mr..
Duke left England with sl,500009 as his
share of the profit. The Imperial Tobacco
company then popularized the brands of
! their leading branches and left the Ogden
| brands to exist only on minor scale.
thus proving that it is no hard task to
familiarize the English smoking public
With new brands"