194 The Soverane Herbe 



touch, nor so green as to be moist, but a happy 

 medium. It should be solid to the pressure of the 

 fingers. 



From the ash of a cigar many smokers deduce the 

 quality. White ash, it is said, denotes a fine, and 

 dark ash an inferior, leaf. To a certain extent the 

 ash is an index to the quality of the tobacco-leaf. 

 The ash should be white or grayish-white, but its 

 colour depends largely upon the strength of the 

 tobacco. A mild penny cigar will yield pure white 

 ash, while the finest Havana of maduro strength 

 burns a blackish ash. Reddish ash denotes the 

 presence of iron, and streaky, black ash is due to 

 an excess of carbon and the resultant imperfect 

 burning. The belief that the quality of a cigar may 

 be judged by the length of time the ash remains 

 intact is true as regards the manufacture of the cigar. 

 It depends upon the length and neat arrangement of 

 the filling leaf; a well-made, compact cigar naturally 

 is of greater consistency than one in which the body 

 is composed of leaf twisted and huddled together. 

 When the ash is flicked off, the glowing point should 

 be sharp — the sharper the point the better the cigar. 



In the previous chapter we have referred to the 

 inferiority, as a whole, of light-coloured to dark 

 tobacco for pipes. This applies with even greater force 

 to cigars. Light-coloured cigars should be avoided ; 

 they are made from quickly-grown leaf, artificially 

 dried and ' seasoned ' in about six days instead of 

 from six months to two years, and manufactured and 

 shipped to England for sale all in six months. 



The real true colour of the perfect, properly-grown 



