The year 1883 was an exceptionally favourable one, as the harvest in Sumatra was very good, while prices for Java tobacco were higher than of late years, in consequence of the short harvest of 1882.
Large quantities of Sumatra tobacco found buyers in the United States, in consequence of the protectionist measure introduced in that country in favour of the home tobacco producers. The duty was raised from 35 c. to 75 c. per lb. on and after the 1st July, 1883, and great efforts were made to import as much as possible at the lower duty before that date.
The principal owners of the plantations are Dutchmen, and the labour employed is Chinese coolies, brought to the island principally from the Malaya peninsula. The crop, according to one of these successful planters, is scarcely ever reared two years in succession on the same lands. The jungle is first cleared, and then the seed planted. After the first crop of tobacco is gathered, it is the next season used for rice, or something else, and tobacco is not planted again until the sixth or seventh year after the jungle is cleared. By adopting this method, a better result is obtained.
The drying-house is thus described by a recent visitor to the island:—
“The interior is very much like a rick-yard, with tobacco stalks instead of hay-ricks, among which a perfect army of half-clad Chinese coolies, 400 strong, are hard at work sorting, ranging and stowing. So overpoweringly strong is the scent of the half-dried tobacco leaves that a smoker would have nothing to do but to take in an empty pipe with him and enjoy a good hard smoke gratis, merely by inhaling the air through it. But the Chinamen, whether habituated to it by long use, or fortified against it by the superior power of opium, breathe this perfumed atmosphere as easily as if it were the purest air of the sea. ‘That is how we measure the heat, you see,’ says our host, calling our attention to the hollow bamboos thrust through the heart of each stack, with a stick inside it, which, when pulled out, is almost too hot to touch. ‘It must never be above or below a certain point, you know. Instead of stripping off the leaves at once, we hang up the whole plant to dry, and do not strip it till it is quite dried. The Sumatra tobacco, however, will not do for cigars. It is only used for what we call the ‘deckblatt’ (cover leaf), which covers the outside of the cigar.’”
Consul Kennedy reports that “the main cause of the prosperity in Deli is the tobacco, the first crop of which was shipped in 1869.
“The crop for 1884 will turn out about 122,000 bales, valued at 2,080,000l.
“The accompanying table shows the export during the last 11 years:—
| Year. | Bales. | Value. |
|---|---|---|
| £ | ||
| 1873 | 9,238 | 208,333 |
| 1874 | 12,811 | 250,000 |
| 1875 | 15,147 | 291,666 |
| 1876 | 28,947 | 520,833 |
| 1877 | 36,167 | 541,666 |
| 1878 | 48,155 | 750,000 |
| 1879 | 57,544 | 875,000 |
| 1880 | 64,965 | 937,500 |
| 1881 | 82,356 | 1,187,500 |
| 1882 | 102,032 | 1,750,000 |
| 1883 | 92,000 | 1,583,333 |
| [Estimated.] | ||
| Note.—One bale equals 176 English lb. | ||
“Prices for Deli tobacco have ruled on the whole fairly high, the special quality of the leaf lying in the fact of its being light and elastic in texture, with thin fibres, so that it is admirably adapted to serve as cover-leaf, and as such is a good substitute for Havana tobacco. As a smoking-tobacco it lacks flavour. There is a pretty general concurrence of opinion that the seed of the Deli tobacco was indigenous, and obtained from Batak tribes in the interior; and although many experiments have been made with seeds from Java, Manilla, and other places, the planters have invariably come back to the original seed, finding that the new kinds develop a coarseness of leaf attributed to the extraordinary richness of the virgin soil, a soil partly alluvial and partly volcanic, but covered throughout with dense forests.