The burning must be free and even with a white 

 or whitish-brown ash which remains intact until 

 cigar is three-fourths smoked, (7) good size of 

 leaf, (8) must be elastic and souple, must not be 

 brittle, (9) it must be free from spots and light 

 in weight. 



Some of these qualities are essential in filler 

 leaf; some in wrapper leaf. Thus the color of 

 filler leaf does not matter; neither does the 

 aroma of the wrapper the essential qualities of 

 which are color, lightness and elasticity. 



The cigars consumed in the U. S. are either 

 (a) Imported or (b) Home Manufactured. 



(a) IMPORTED CIGARS 



The most important of the imported cigars 

 are those that come from Cuba, Porto Rico and 

 the Philippines. 



Up to the time of the Civil War cigars were 

 imported principally from Germany and Cuba 

 and the value was about 4% million dollars 

 annually. High import duties have, however, 

 altered this and the number of imported cigars 

 is nearly 90 per cent less than formerly. The 

 value of the import has not, however, fallen so 

 much, that is to say only the higher grades of 

 cigars are imported. The value of cigars now 

 imported does not exceed 3 million dollars 

 annually and they are principally Cuban. 



