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) ImporTEeD CreaRrs 
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 414 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. 
114 
