CLASSIFICATION AND MARKETS. 53 



The Missouri air-cured fillers make what is called a 

 "tough, sweet chew," that is pleasant to the taste, but 

 the texture of the leaf is not so delicate or silky as that 

 of the Henry county flue-cured tobacco, nor does it com- 

 mand such high prices in the market. 



A chewing tobacco with a large percentage of nico- 

 tine, much used by miners, sailors, lumbermen, farm 

 laborers, and others employed in outdoor work, is made 

 of the strong, new-land tobacco grown in the heavy- 

 shipping districts, and even, to some extent, of that 

 grown on heavily manured plots. This product rises 

 sometimes as high as six per cent in nicotine, and is 

 totally unfit for use by delicate persons, or those having 

 weak nerves. Owing to the large amount of gummy 

 substances stored away in its vascular tissue, it rarely 

 has the capacity of absorbing, without dripping, more 

 than an equal weight of water. 



The air-cured fillers of Tennessee and Kentucky, 

 other than the Burley, are of light to medium weight, 

 not coarse in texture or fiber, but far from being as del- 

 icate as the flue-cured products of Virginia. This prod- 

 uct is not gummy or waxy, but it has a mild, sweet 

 flavor, free from acridity or bitterness, porous in struc- 

 ture, and generally of a brigbt, pale- red color. It 

 possesses a high absorptive capacity. It is distinguished 

 from the Burley fillers by having more body, with less 

 delicacy of fiber, and by being darker in color. 



Plug Wrappers. Equally as essential for making 

 plug tobacco, are plug wrappers. The yellow and ma- 

 hogany types of Virginia, North and South Carolina, 

 east Tennessee and portions of Kentucky, may be con- 

 sidered grades of the yellow type. The highest grade of 

 yellow wrappers is small in size, lemon-yellow in color, 

 soft and silky to the feel, with yellow or white fibers. 

 It sparkles with minute, golden colored granules, appar- 

 ently sprinkled on the upper surface of the leaf, that 



