“The province of Havana on an average produced, before the war, only about 70,000 bales known as Partido leaf, one-fifth of which is used in Cuba for cheaper grades of cigars and cigarettes and the remainder exported to Key West, New York, and Europe. The quantity of tobacco grown in the province of Matanzas is so very insignificant that it is not known in the market at all.
“The province of Santa Clara produces on an average about 130,000 bales, generally known as Remedios leaf, of which about 30,000 bales are used in that district and the neighbouring cities, and the remainder, 100,000 bales, goes to the United States; that is, the finer grades, for the lower grades are shipped to Germany, etc. The province of Puerto Principe produces little or no tobacco; nothing at least comes to the market.
“El Oriente, or in other words the province of Santiago de Cuba, had a production of about 100,000 bales, generally called tobacco Gibara or Mayari, of which about 40,000 bales are consumed by the inhabitants of the district, and the remaining 60,000 bales are exported to those countries where a government monopoly of the tobacco industry exists, viz.: Austria, Spain, Italy, etc. This tobacco is very coarse and the greater part suitable only for pipe smoking. The price is in proportion to the quality; often not higher than twelve to fifteen cents a pound.”
While the methods of the tobacco grower differ in detail in the various provinces, in a general way one fairly broad description of tobacco raising will apply to all. The activity begins in September, at which time the seed is sown in the semilleros, or planting beds, which ordinarily lie higher than the common level of the farm. About the end of October, or say in fifty days, the young plants are transferred to a field prepared for them, and are set out at intervals of eighteen inches; great care being taken, as they are so delicate that a slight bruise upon their roots will kill them. The plants are removed from the nursery in the morning and set out in the evening. The growing plant is now carefully watched, the ground kept free from weeds, the tops of the plants pruned, and the suckers removed from the roots. The pruning is done with the thumb nail, as its dull edge closes the wound to the stem and prevents its bleeding. The three enemies to the plant are the common tobacco worm, a slug that destroys the leaf, and a butterfly from this slug, which lays its eggs on the leaves and kills them. These insects must be removed by hand, and the work is hard and disagreeable.
The plant is ready for cutting in January, and after being cut the leaves are hung on poles and dried in the open air and in the drying-sheds. When thoroughly dry, the leaves are removed from the poles, sprinkled with water in which tobacco stems have been left until fermentation has taken place, and the tobacco is packed, first into bunches, then into bales of 110 pounds each. In this form it is ready for shipment. The tobacco is classed according to quality, which also fixes the price. Fertilisers are not often used, as they affect the flavour.
One man can attend to 15,000 plants, which is about the product of two acres, and one acre has been known to yield a crop worth $3000, but, of course, quality, rather than quantity, makes such value. It is estimated that 80,000 persons are engaged in cultivating tobacco in Cuba.
Although profits of from ten to thirty-five per cent. have been realised on tobacco-raising in Cuba, very few foreigners, excepting an occasional German, have undertaken it. English and German companies own the majority of the manufacturing establishments in Havana and elsewhere, but they have found that it is more profitable to buy the raw material than to raise it, although an English company, manufacturing in Havana, is reported to have paid $1,000,000 for 18,000 acres in the Vuelta Abajo district.
Among the great Havana companies are the famous Henry Clay and Bock Company, Limited, with a capital of $2,500,000; the Partagos Company, of London, capital $1,500,000; H. Upmann & Company, a German corporation, and many others (120 in all), of varying nationalities; but no American companies.[16] Of the total exports of cigars and tobacco from Cuba, Havana ships by far the largest percentage, estimated at from ninety-five to ninety-nine per cent. of the whole. The largest number of cigars (188,755,000) were shipped in 1888, out of a total shipment to all countries of 219,892,000. In 1896, owing to the high tariff in the United States, the exports dropped to 60,000,000, estimated, and the entire shipments of Cuban tobacco to the United States decreased from 26,771,317 pounds, valued at $10,613,468, in 1896, to 4,410,073 pounds, valued at $2,306,067 for the first nine months of 1897.
The tobacco interests of Cuba have suffered, as all others have, from Spanish greed, dishonesty, and misrule; and now that the new era is at hand, changed conditions for the better will develop at once. No more fitting conclusion to this chapter could be made than to present the following clear and comprehensive statement of Mr. Gustavo Bock, of the Henry Clay and Bock Company, Limited, of Havana, on the production of tobacco in Cuba, its manufacture, its necessities in the present difficult situation, and the quickest and best means of improvement. Mr. Bock prepared this valuable report especially for the author.