32 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 



tiller uiiist have, above all else, a fine flavor and aroma and a good 

 ''burn/' In the case of the wrapper leaf there are a number of 

 requirements to be met, among- which are sufficient elasticit}^, proper 

 color, size, and shape, fineness of veins, freedom from objectionable 

 flavor and taste, a fine " grain, " and a good burn. Many of these 

 qualities can be determined by simple inspection, without the use of 

 any specific tests, while others require special laboratory methods. 

 The present article has to do only with the practical methods of testing 

 the burn, deferring to a later day a consideration of the chemical 

 characteristics of the tobaccos which have been tested. 



There are several elements which go to make a good or bad burn, 

 chief of which are the capacity for holding fire, the evenness of the 

 burn, the color of the ash and its firmness, the coaling or carboniza- 

 tion, and the "puckering" of the leaf immediately in advance of the 

 burning zone of the cigar. The final test of any cigar tobacco must, 

 of course, rest in the smoking of the manufactured cigar, but, while 

 this gives a direct means of determining the character of the ash, it 

 does not furnish accurate information as to the evenness of the burn 

 or the fire-holding capacity of any one of the components of the cigar 

 except with reference to the other two particular components used in 

 the experiment. This is particular!}^ true of the wrapper, as was 

 shown by special experiments carried out to observe the effect of 

 using different fillers and binders with the same wrapper. The result 

 of these experiments will be more fully discussed below. Again, it 

 should be remembered, in this connection, that cigars made b}^ the 

 same workman and from the same lot of tobacco often vary widely in 

 their burn owing to the impossibility of avoiding unevenness in the 

 filler, and this source of error can only be eliminated by several times 

 repeating the experiment. It is evident, therefore, that, in order to 

 get reliable data concerning the relative merits of different wrappers 

 with respect to their burning qualities, the cigar test must be supple- 

 mented by some other method capable of giving sharp distinctions as to 

 the fire-holding capacity and evenness of burn. 



A method which has long been in use is to ignite the leaf by means 

 of a lighted cigar or a slow-burning match devised by Nessler,** and 

 note the number of seconds during which it continues to glow. The 

 mean of several tests is taken as a measure of the capacity for holding 

 fire; but the variation in the results obtained, even upon a single leaf, 

 is so great that little reliance can be placed upon the figures except in 

 a verj' general way. In this method no account is taken of the area 

 of the leaf burned, and the wide differences obtained on a single leaf 

 are due principally to the fact that frequently the ignited zone soon 

 ceases to glow except for one or more very small streamers, which 



«Landw. Vers. Stat., XI, 399. 

 100— IV 



