Cigars 



195 



and cured cigar-leaf is a dark, heavy cinnamon, even 

 colour. These are no stronger than light-coloured 

 tobacco ; a cigar pitch-black smokes mild if it is of 

 good and properly-seasoned leaf. Lightness and 

 mildness, darkness and strength, are not synonymous. 

 Light cigars contain little of the true flavour and 

 essence of tobacco. They are nearly all fibre, con- 

 tain little sap, which yields the true fragrance, and 

 that not matured. Light-coloured tobacco and cigars 

 are unhealthy in comparison with dark leaf. The one 

 is immature, fibrous, and non-resinous ; the other fully 

 grown, juicy, with slightly decomposed fibres. It is the 

 combustion of so much fibre and solid matter that 

 causes ' smoker's throat,' tonsillitis, and indigestion. 



Good dark leaves take eight or nine months to 

 grow, some months to cure, two years to season in 

 bales, and a year or two to mature after being made 

 into cigars. Such fully-grown, perfectly-cured, ripened 

 and seasoned cigars are never lighter than cinnamon ; 

 they should be darker, running to a dark, dry-look- 

 ing, heavy chestnut-brown. These cigars, declares a 

 connoisseur, ' are worth smoking ; the aroma charms 

 the gods, the flavour is entrancing, and — they cost 

 money.' 



About 60,000,000 pounds of tobacco are grown 

 annually in Cuba, of which two-thirds are exported 

 and 20,000,000 pounds retained for home consumption. 

 The annual output of Havanas is about 3,200,000,000 

 cigars a year. Britain imports some 2,450,000 

 pounds of cigars per annum, valued at ;^i, 500,000. 

 The world's annual consumption of cigars is estimated 

 at 400,000,000,000. 



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