124 The Soverane Herbe 



For superfine shag and the finest cut tobacco the 

 knife cuts fifty strokes to the inch, each shaving of 

 tobacco being thus one-fiftieth of an inch in breadth. 

 Rougher navy-cut and flake tobaccos are cut at 

 twenty or even fourteen strokes per inch. 



As they come from the knife coarse flakes and cuts 

 are dried and packed into tin boxes for sale. Shag 

 and other fine-cut tobaccos for pipe and cigarettes are 

 carried from the machine, whence they emerge in 

 long, close shavings, to be ' stoved.' The tobacco, 

 damp-wet from the knife, is placed in long, shallow 

 troughs, and heated to 200° or 400° F. by a multitude 

 of gas-burners playing on the under surface. So hot 

 are these ' pans' that the dry bits of tobacco actually 

 scorch. Workmen, taking the close, damp tobacco- 

 shavings, knead and toss them on the broiling sur- 

 face until the flakes are thoroughly separated. Thus 

 steamed, pulled and kneaded, the thin, longitudinal 

 shavings emerge into a mountain of hair-like tobacco 

 such as the smoker presses into his pipe. In ' wetting 

 down ' the leaves the drying of this stoving process is 

 taken into account. 



Then the shag or fine-cut honeydew, which in 

 their soft, warm state can be pulled into long-drawn 

 threads, for all the world like silk, must be dried. 

 The hairy tobacco is spread on gauze and blasted by 

 a current of air to expel the steam and cool it, an 

 electrically-driven fan accomplishing this in three or 

 four minutes instead of the twenty-four hours of the 

 old process of spreading and natural drying. Then 

 the tobacco is ready for packing or manufacture into 

 cigarettes. 



