Abstract

From time immemorial Guntur was an outstanding centre for the pro- duction of tobacco in India and in recent years il accounts for the major por tion of the total export of cigarette tobacco. Guntur with its good retentive black soil and an average rainfall of 35 inches a year is the most suitable tract for the cultivation of cigarette tobacco which should be grown only as a dry crop in order that the leaves may be of nuld flavour. For long, India produced and exported nothing but pipe tobacco and very low grade cigaretie tobacco. Up to 1920, only country tobacco leaf of narrow body, with a thick and stouf siem, with practically no colour, was produced and exported in leaf form to England, pressed into bales of 250 lbs. nett each. After 1920 owing to the imposition of heavy Import duty on tobacco in England, the London market wanted the tobacco to be in the form of strips Le, with the major portion of the thick mid-rib removed. The saving in terms of money can easily be appreciated when one considers the fact that the stems that are removed weigh as much as 25% of the whole leaf. Alter 1920, Virginia tobacco cultivation spread gradually in Guntur district and by 1924 large areas were grown. This Virginia variety contained less wood then the country, and the leaf was broad and silky. In the country variety the percentage of bright coloured leat was between. 1 to 2 of the total yield and the rest was a mixture of light brown, brown and dark leaves. In the Virginia tobacco the yield of bright coloured leat is found to range from 5 to 10%. The introduction of flue curing Improved the colour of the cured leaf and the percentage of bright coloured lesi increased from 5 to 10% in the case of sun cured, and to 40 to 50% in the case of flue cured tobacco. The foreign market appreciated the Improve ment in quality and good prices were paid for Guntur bright flue cured virginia strips, which gave a good impetus to the cultivators and the develop ment of flue curing was very rapid. In 1930 there were only about 200 barns in Guntur but by 1934 the number of barns in Guntur increased to 2500. On account of great demand for bright virginia flue cured tobacco in London market from 1936, the number of bams in Guntur tract increased rapidly to nearly 5000 in number during 1938 season. The manufacturing buyers in the United Kingdom commenced to blend larger quantities of this improved Indian Tobacco with the more costly American tobacco.

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