1 86 ST NICOTINE 



tobacco plant. In the preparation this valuable leaf is 

 never damped with water, as is done with the inferior kinds, 

 but when it is just half dry it is rolled, and thus the full, 

 natural and most delicately flavoured qualities are retained. 

 Next come the ' Regalias ' which are treated in a similar 

 way ; but genuine Havanas are seldom to be had in 

 Europe. The area in which these plants are grown is so 

 small that it is physically impossible all the cigars sold 

 under these names can be real Havana ' legitimas ' ; and 

 the price they command places them beyond the reach of 

 ordinary smokers. So it happens that the cigars made in 

 Europe from any Cuban tobacco are usually classed as 

 ' Havanas.' 



Of the many different methods of harvesting and 

 preparing the leaves of the plant for commerce, one of the 

 best is said to be that recently adopted in Florida. The 

 latest results would seem to justify the sanguine hopes of 

 the planters that by-and-by they will produce a tobacco in 

 all essential particulars equal to Havanas. They trust 

 mainly to a new method of reaping. Instead of waiting, 

 as in the old way, until the whole field is ripe, they keep a 

 close watch on the crop, and as each leaf becomes ripe, 

 which a skilled eye readily detects, it is taken from the 

 stalk and placed with other fully ripened ones in a broad- 

 bottomed basket, or tray, and carried to the curing-house. 

 Here the leaves are sorted and sized, strung and hung up 

 in rows and tiers, and when all the field has been gathered 

 leaf by leaf, and the other operations completed, the 

 steaming apparatus is brought into action — hot-water pipes 

 leading to evaporating pans — and the proper degree of heat 

 secured to produce the desired fermentation. By dint of 

 care in the regulation of the heating apparatus, so as to 

 secure the proper temperature in the curing rooms, and in 



