THE MANUFACTURE OF TOBACCO. 465 



States is very thin, chaffy and, as far as possible, desti- 

 tute of gummy matter. It is stemmed, moistened and 

 pressed by a screw into a trough, and fed by machinery 

 to a series of knives arranged around the outer circum- 

 ference of a wheel. The wheel is made to revolve with 

 great rapidity. After the tobacco is cut into fine shreds, 

 it is spread upon trays and exposed to heat, which 

 causes the compressed shreds to fall apart. The cut 

 product is packed in buckets and sometimes in boxes or 

 bags. It is used for chewing, smoking and the manu- 

 facture of cigarettes. When used for chewing, it is 

 sauced with sweet liquids as plug tobacco. 



CIGARETTES AND CIGARETTE TOBACCO. 



The manufacture and consumption of cigarettes 

 has increased amazingly in the United States during the 

 past 20 years. The production in the United States in 

 1875 was 41,000,000 ; in 1896 it was 4,000,000,000, or 

 nearly 100 times as great. 



Cigarettes of the best quality are made of tobacco 

 from three to four years old. The leaves are verv care- 

 fully selected, stemmed and dried, and then brought 

 into order and cut into shreds, of which the finer qual- 

 ities of cigarettes are made. It requires four pounds of 

 leaf tobacco, or three pounds of stemmed tobacco, to 

 make one thousand cigarettes. The wrappers are of 

 either tobacco or paper. When made of tobacco, the 

 best leaves are used for this purpose, and the wrappers are 

 cut by hand between the veins, so that the small stems, 

 or veins, will not show on the cigarette. The paper 

 used is made mainly in France and is called rice paper. 

 It burns without odor and almost without ash. It is 

 very thin, but tough and almost transparent, and is said 

 to be made from the fiber of the cocoanut palm. Paste 

 of the finest quality is used for cementing the wrappers ; 

 sometimes the wrappers are fastened by crimping the 

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