CHAPTER 17 



TOBACCO 



By George T. McNess 

 Tobacco Expert, Texas Experiment Station 



Types and Their Commercial Uses. — The commercial tobaccos of 

 North America are divided into three principal types, known as cigar leaf, 

 manufacturing and export. These types are again subdivided according 

 to their market grades and commercial use. The cigar type consists of 

 three grades: wrapper, binder and filler leaf. The wrapper is a fine- 

 textured leaf used for covering the outside of the cigar, and must have 

 good appearance, length and width, be uniform in color and have fine 

 veins. Cigar wrapper leaf is the highest priced tobacco produced in North 

 America. The binder is that part of a cigar which holds the filler leaf or 

 bunch together. -This grade of tobacco must have fair size and possess 

 good burning qualities. It is generally selected from the poorer grades of 

 wrapper leaf. The filler is that part which constitutes the bulk of the cigar, 

 and varies in quality according to the kind of tobacco used for this purpose. 

 Filler tobacco should possess good aroma, taste and perfect combustion. 



There are quite a number of tobaccos used for cigar purposes, each 

 having distinctive characteristics and grown in different parts of the 

 country. The kind of seed used, the influence of climate, soil conditions 

 and methods of culture and curing determine the ultimate use of the leaf. 



The tobaccos used in the manufacturing of cigars are: the Havana 

 Seed, Broadleaf, Cuban Seed, Florida Sumatra, Georgia Sumatra, Texas 

 Hybrid, Wisconsin Seed, Pennsylvania Seed, Zimmer Spanish, Gebhardt 

 and Little Dutch. Several types of tobacco are used in the manufacture 

 of smoking and chewing tobaccos, the principal type used in this country 

 being the White Burley, which is grown in Kentucky and parts of Ohio. 

 Cigarette tobacco is manufactured from the bright flue-cured leaf of the 

 Carolinas and southern Virginia. About 60 per cent of the crop is used for 

 home consumption. The heavy or fire-cured tobaccos are mostly exported 

 to Europe, although some of the finer grades are used for plug wrappers. 



Principal Tobacco Districts. — The finest cigar tobaccos are grown in 

 the New England states of Connecticut and Massachusetts, and in the 

 South in Florida, Georgia and Texas. These states produce the fine grade 

 cigar wrapper leaf. In the New England states it is grown under cloth 

 shades, while in the Southern states a slat shade is used. These shade- 

 grown tobaccos rival the fine tobaccos imported from Sumatra and Cuba 

 both in quality of burn and taste and in wrapping capacity. The binder 



(203) 



