0 pounds each,
and are then ready for the market. Because of the varying conditions under
which the leaf is produced, from year to year, it is somewhat difficult
to determine with any accuracy the increase in the industry. Broadly, the
output appears to have been practically doubled in the last twenty years,
a growth attributed to the new economic conditions, to the extension of
transportation facilities that have made possible the opening of new areas
to cultivation, and to the investment of capital, largely American capital.
The exports show, generally, a material increase in sales of leaf tobacco
and some decline in sales of cigars. The principal market for the leaf, for
about 85 per cent of it, is in the United States where it is made, with
more or less honesty, into "all-Havana" cigars. This country, however,
takes only about a third of Cuba's cigar output. The United Kingdom takes
about as much of that product as we do, and Germany, in normal times, takes
about half as much. The remainder is widely scattered, and genuine imported
Havana cigars are obtainable in all countries throughout the world.
The total value of Cuba's yearly tobacco crop is from $40,000,000 to
$50,000,000, including domestic consumption and foreign trade.

The story that all Cubans, men and women alike, are habitual and constant
smokers, is not and never was true. Whatever it may have been in the past,
I am inclined to think that smoking by women is more common in this country
than it is in Cuba, particularly among the middle and upper social classes.
I have seen many American and English women smoke in public, but never a
Cuban woman. Nor is smoking by men without its exceptions. I doubt if the
percentage of non-smokers in this country is any greater than it is in
the island. There are many Cubans who do smoke, just as there are many
Americans, Englishmen, Germans, and Russians. Those who watch on the
street for a respectable Cuban woman with a cigar in her mouth, or even a
cigarette, will be disappointed. Cuba's tobacco is known by the name of the
region in which it is produced; the _Vuelta Abajo_ of Pinar del Rio; the
_Partidos_ of Havana Province; the _Manicaragua_ and the _Remedios_ of
Santa Clara; and the _Mayari_ of Oriente. Until quite recently, when
American organized capital secured control of many of the leading factories
in Cuba, it was possible to identify a cigar, in size and shape, by some
commonly employed name, such as _perfecto