Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/432

 416 COMMERCIAL DESCRIPTIQN OF Tobacco has been already fully described in the agricultural department of the work, and in this place ir will only be necessary to offer a few re- marks on the trade in it. Small quantities of to- bacco are every where grown for domestic con- sumption, but a rich soil and considerable agri- cultural skill being necessary to produce it in quantity and perfection, it is an article of foreign exportation only in a few situations. These situa- tions are Lusong, Majindanao, but especially Java, This latter country, besides its o wn internal sup- ply, exports an immense quantity to Borneo, Su- matra, the Malayan Peninsula, Celebes, and the Spice Islands. The whole quantity exported is 5,000,000 lbs. The tobacco of Java, as it appears in commerce, is, as mentioned in another place, divided into three kinds, collected from the same plants, — the upper, middle, and under leaves, constituting respectively tobacco of the Jirstt se- cond, and third qualities, the prices of which on the spot may be reckoned in order at 5d., 3d., and Ifd. per lb. It would be difficult to institute any comparison between these prices, and those of the tobaccos of other countries, from the nature of the preparation which the Java tobacco undergoes, which is finely shred, well dried, and freed from the mid-rib, a state in which other tobaccos do not appear in the markets. It is to be observed, that, in the present state of agri- 10