CUBA’S TOBACCO INDUSTRY
Cuba’s tobacco has a great advantage over her sugar in the facts that it
can always command a good price and is beyond the reach of competition
in the matter of quality. Every likely soil and climate in the world has
been tried in the effort to produce a leaf similar to that grown in the
fields of the celebrated Vuelta Abajo. Even though seeds from the best
Cuban plants have been used, the results have never approached the
object sought. What is commonly known as “Havana” tobacco stands alone
without a rival or any satisfactory substitute.
One of the peculiarities of the tobacco plant is that a very slight
change in the conditions under which it is grown will effect a
considerable change in the character of the leaf produced. Plants raised
in soils composed of precisely the same chemical ingredients will yield
quite different tobacco when those ingredients happen to be present in
varying proportions. In Cuba, as elsewhere, it is no uncommon thing to
find tobacco of the highest grade upon a piece of land within a stone’s
throw of another field where only the poorest quality of leaf can be
produced. This is a fact that should be remembered by prospective
purchasers of advertised Cuban lands. Promotion companies and agents
frequently offer tobacco acreage at high prices, which they justify by
statements of the production of adjacent _vegas_. Often the purchaser
finds himself in possession of a worthless tract lying alongside of one
which is yielding handsome profits to its owner. There is very little
land in the tobacco districts of Pinar del Rio which has not been tried
out and it is not safe to buy anything unless it is actually in
cultivation. In Oriente there is plenty of good tobacco land available,
but up to the present it has not been made to produce a grade of leaf
equal to what is termed _partidos_.
Tobacco is raised in the most widely separated parts of the earth and in
the most diversified climates. The world’s annual crop of the leaf
approximates 2,000,000,000 pounds with a value in the raw state of about
$225,000,000. Of this volume, Cuba produces no
[Illustration: WELL-DEVELOPED TOBACCO PLANTS.]
more than 60,000,000 pounds in a good year, but receives for it about
$20,000,000. These figures clearly indicate the comparatively high price
which the Cuban leaf commands. Fully three-fourths of the total crop
comes from Pinar del Rio, the remainder mainly from Habana and Santa
Clara. Oriente is fast coming to the fore as a tobacco producing
province.
A very small proportion of the product of Pinar del Rio, and probably
none of the output of other parts of the Island, is true “Cuban
tobacco.” After the Ten Years’ War, foreign seeds, chiefly that of
Mexican tobacco, were used extensively to revive the ruined _vegas_.
These exotic varieties throve and almost entirely usurped the place of
the original plant. Greatly improved by the Cuban environment, the
greater part of the Island’s output is, nevertheless, Mexican tobacco.
It is often claimed that the Cuban tobacco grower possesses some
peculiar or mystical skill, but the truth doubtless is that his success
is mainly due to the combination of soil, water, and air, that his
plants enjoy. If it were otherwise the superiority in product which the
Vuelta Abajo has maintained for three centuries would have been
contested by other sections. The famous “Lower Valley” lies in the
shadow of the Organ Mountains, to the southwest of Habana. The district
is about one hundred miles in length by ten in width. The earliest
plantations of the Spaniards were set out in the Vuelta Abajo at the
close of the sixteenth century. It is the flavor only of the leaf from
this district that creates the extraordinary demand for it. The
_partidos_ varieties, as the best leaf from other parts of the Island is
called, is larger and has a better texture.
An average year’s output of Vuelta Abajo leaf will be about 260,000
bales, or 28,600,000 pounds. Somewhat more than half of this is
converted into first-class cigars and cigarettes by the manufacturers of
Habana, and the remainder is exported to the United States and Europe.
The Province of Habana produces about one-fourth as much as Pinar del
Rio, say 65,000 bales. This is called _partido_ leaf. About 15,000 bales
of it are consumed in the Cuban factories and the rest shipped to Key
West, New York, and Europe. Of the 125,000 bales of what is called
Remedios leaf, which Santa Clara produces annually, one-fifth is used
locally and the balance sent to the United States. Oriente has a
production somewhat less than that of Santa Clara, and consumes about
the same proportion locally. This tobacco is generally termed Mayari. It
is a coarse leaf, too low-grade for the American market, but acceptable
at a low price to the smokers of Spain, Italy, and Austria, whither it
is shipped. The Provinces of Matanzas and Puerto Principe do not produce
enough tobacco to make an effect upon the market.
Tobacco factories are operated in most of the cities and large towns of
Cuba. They give employment to a large number of men and women. A
considerable proportion of this labor is skilled and high-priced. Many
workmen receive five dollars or more as the daily wage. The best paid
employes are those called “selectors,” who have the faculty of correctly
grading tobacco leaves by a quick touch and rapid glance. In other
branches of the manufacture, such as wrapping and sorting, experts will
earn as much by piece work. The finished product of the factories
amounts to upwards of 200,000,000 cigars and nearly 15,000,000 packages
of cigarettes yearly.
Some of the finest buildings in Habana are devoted to the manufacture of
tobacco. The factories are numerous and include many in which no more
than twenty hands are engaged, but the bulk of the business is centred
in a few companies that each employ thousands of workmen. There has been
considerable reorganization among the large manufacturing concerns in
recent years, involving the introduction of a large amount of additional
capital and the extension of American interests. More than 25,000
persons gain a livelihood in the tobacco business in Habana alone. Not
less than ninety-five per cent. of the exports of manufactured tobacco
are from Habana. A large proportion of the factory output of interior
towns is accounted for by domestic consumption.
The Cuban _veguero_ possesses a skill in tobacco growing which is the
result of the accumulated experience and practice of generations. In his
hands the cultivation of the narcotic plant is a highly developed art,
but it has not been reduced to a science. The most successful Cuban
planter can not tell you definitely how he produces his results, nor why
certain processes insure desired consequences. He has no fixed formulas,
and some of his most cherished practices are based on sheer
superstition. As a rule, he is working ground that his father and
grandfather worked before him. Through their experience and his own he
has gained an intimate knowledge of its needs, capacity, and
peculiarities. He can produce results from it that Europeans and
Americans have never succeeded in equalling without his aid.
Nevertheless, it is doubtful if the Cuban is securing from his tobacco
land the utmost yield in quality or quantity of which it is capable. In
the cultivation he clings to many crudities; his irrigation is haphazard
and often misjudged; he does not avail himself of the mechanical
appliances at his command. Where the best leaf is grown, traditional
methods are most firmly entrenched. There have, however, been introduced
great improvements in the treatment of lands controlled by large
corporations. The chief and most effective of these is the cultivation
of the leaf under cover. In order to encourage this development of the
industry, the duty on cheese cloth, which ranged from fifteen to fifty
cents per kilogram, was repealed in 1902. Since then the area under
cover has steadily increased and the results achieved justify the belief
that Cuba will soon rival Sumatra in the production of fine wrappers.
Tobacco seed is sown in carefully prepared beds during the month of
September. About sixty days later the young plants are set out in the
field with eighteen inches of space between each. Constant pruning and
weeding are necessary in order to insure a healthy and vigorous growth.
At the same time the tobacco worm and leaf slug must be picked off as
fast as they appear on the plant.
In January the plants are cut and the leaves hung to dry. When
thoroughly dried, the leaves are petuned, or sprinkled with a solution
of tobacco water until fermentation has taken place. The leaves are then
roughly sorted with regard to size and quality, assembled in bunches, or
hands, and packed in bales, each weighing about 125 pounds.
It is estimated that over one hundred thousand persons in Cuba are
engaged in the tobacco industry, and that eighty thousand of these are
employed in the commercial cultivation of the leaf. One man is generally
able to properly look after two acres, which will contain 15,000 plants.
The cost of cultivation varies considerably in different parts of the
Island and under different conditions. In the Province of Pinar del Rio
the cost of preparing the ground, fertilizing, planting, care, rent, and
general services, will approximate $8,000 for one _caballeria_, or
33-1/2 acres. The yield from such a tract will average 211 _tercios_, or
bales, with a value of $50 each; 54 _arrobas_ (1,350 pounds) of seed,
worth $216; and about $20 worth of stems. So that the output would fetch
approximately $10,800, leaving $2,800 profit to the grower.
Mr. Gustavo Bock, an owner and manufacturer of the greatest experience,
puts the matter in a different form. His statement, as quoted in
_Industrial Cuba_, follows:
“To produce 100 bales of tobacco, of 50 kilos each, a farmer would rent
one _caballeria_ of land, one half of which he would employ for tobacco
cultivation and the remainder for vegetables.
Rent of land per year $ 300
250,000 plants at $1.50 per thousand 375
6,250 pounds of Peruvian fertilizer 250
Hiring of oxen 102
Wages and maintenance of 12 men at $25 per
month each 3,000
_Yaguas_, _Majaguas_, and expenses 300
Taxes, physician’s bills and medicines, and
living expenses of the planter and his family 400
------
Total $4,727
“So that a planter would have to sell each 50 kilos of tobacco at $47.27
to cover the cost of production. The foregoing figures show clearly that
the production of tobacco in the Island of Cuba is more expensive than
that in any other part of the world, especial attention being necessary
to its raising from the day it is planted to the cutting of the leaf,
besides the subsequent treatment necessary in order to obtain good leaf;
which goes on day and night if a good quality is desired.”
The use of cover, of course, entails additional expenses, but it also
produces greater results and larger profits. The cloth awning, which is
stretched over the field at a height of six or eight feet, has the
effect of tempering the strength of the sun’s rays, moderating the force
of the wind and diminishing its detrimental action on the leaves,
keeping the soil moist, and excluding the insects that prey upon the
plant. Thus, aside from the improvement in the product produced by the
use of cover, there is a substantial saving in labor secured.
According to an official statement relating to cultivation under cover
in Pinar del Rio, 212 hectares (a hectare is 2.47 acres), in which
[Illustration: HUNDREDS OF ACRES OF TOBACCO UNDER COVER.]
6,776,000 seedlings were set, gave plants, according as they were budded
or not, varying in height from 1.78 to 2.10 meters, with 14 to 18 leaves
on each plant, with a yield of 14 per cent. for plants weighing 40
pounds and 60 per cent. of first-class wrapper leaves. The average cost
per hectare in the Province was $736.44.
On the other hand, two well-known and experienced planters of that
Province state that tobacco grown under cover will yield 330 bales to
the _caballeria_, instead of 150 produced by the ordinary method, giving
leaves from 28 to 32 inches long by 14 to 16 inches wide in the
proportion of 7 per cent. This is an enormous increase in yield over
that ordinarily obtained, but it may not be accepted as representative
of the results generally secured.
The average annual exports of Cuban tobacco are valued at about
$27,000,000. This sum is less than half the value of the average sugar
output. The relative importance of the two industries must not be gauged
by these figures. Although tobacco culture and manufacture are mainly
carried on in a comparatively small section of the Island, their
beneficial influence upon the community is widespread and greater than
the Cubans in general suspect it to be. The prospects for the
development of the tobacco industry and the possibilities of its
economic improvement are much better than in the case of sugar. The
former entails fewer hazards and larger profits than the latter. There
is greatly less possibility of concentrated control in the production of
tobacco than there is in the growing of sugar-cane. More than in all
this, however, the beneficial character of the tobacco industry lies in
its especial availability to the small capitalist and the individual
planter; its demand for skilled and intelligent labor; and its extensive
employment of artisans. The _vegueros_ of Cuba and the employes of the
Habana cigar factories are the most intelligent and best paid classes
among the working people of the Island.
At the close of the last war of independence the Cuban tobacco industry
was practically destroyed. In this insurrection fighting was carried on,
for the first time, in the Province of Pinar del Rio. Most of the
plantations were wiped out and the cattle, upon which they depended for
draft animals, were either killed or carried off. Worse still, the
population of the Province was reduced from thirty-six thousand to
barely one-sixth of that number. The first crop after the restoration of
peace yielded no more than one-tenth of the former average production.
The outlook of the industry was extremely black when an American
syndicate supplied the capital necessary to give it a fresh start. Since
then the process of resuscitation has progressed steadily. There is,
however, room for a much greater development. Increase in the labor
supply will permit of extension of the area of cultivation, and
improvement in methods will result in greater yield and better quality.
It is certain that under the stimulus of foreign capital and foreign
management tobacco cultivation in Cuba will soon far surpass the
production of its palmiest days.
The prospect for the manufacturing branch of the industry, which has
never been conducted to its best advantage, is equally good. The
introduction of extensive American interests has put new life into the
business, and the amalgamation of several large independent factories
has been followed by excellent results to the corporations immediately
concerned, as well as to the business at large.
The import tariff imposed on Cuban cigars by the McKinley Act was a
great blow to the manufacturers of Cuba. Many of them moved their
factories to the United States, where, being able to import the raw
material on favorable terms, they found themselves in a position to make
and sell cigars of Cuban tobacco at a profit. The effect of this
movement was to greatly decrease the exportation of manufactured tobacco
from Cuba and to increase proportionally the shipment of leaf. At the
same time the production of cigars in the United States expanded greatly
and reached the enormous quantity of 5,000,000,000 per annum.
As a remedy to this condition of affairs, the Cuban Government removed
the export duty on cigars and cigarettes, whilst maintaining that on
leaf tobacco and increasing it on the higher grades. The justice and
wisdom of this step are illustrated by the following statement by Mr.
Bock:
“To manufacture in the United States 1,000 cigars, weighing 12 pounds,
sold in Habana, unstemmed, 25 pounds of filler, and 5 pounds of wrapper,
we should arrive at the following results:
[Illustration: A TOBACCO FIELD AFTER HARVESTING.]
For export duty on the leaf in Cuba, 30 pounds
of leaf at $12 per 100 kilos $3.60
Import duty in the United States on 25 pounds
of filler at 35 cents each 8.75
Import duty in the United States on 5 pounds
of wrapper at $2 each 10.00
------
Total $22.35
The same 1,000 cigars imported from Cuba,
weighing 12 pounds at $4.50 per pound $54.00
Export duty, 25%, ad valorem, valued at $60
per thousand 15.00
------
Total $69.00
making a difference of $46.65 against the Cuban product.”
The tobacco interests, like the sugar planters and manufacturers, are
hoping for a turn of the political wheel that will bring about free
trade or complete reciprocity between the United States and Cuba. The
need of relief is not so great, however, with the former as with the
latter. Cuba’s tobacco industry is in a fair way, with every likelihood
of improvement in its favor.