126 The Soverane Herbe 



what he had smoked of necessity he continued to 

 smoke of free choice. Meeting a friend employed 

 in a Liverpool tobacco factory, he offered him his 

 own-made mixture, singing its praises loudly, as 

 smokers are wont to laud their favourite brand of 

 burning. The tobacco-man smoked thereof, enjoyed 

 vastly, and so realized the value of the idea that within 

 a very short time the first smoking mixture was 

 placed on the market. 



Until recently these mixtures were made by ming- 

 ling the tobaccos in their cut state, just as many 

 smokers make their special vanity by buying half an 

 ounce of Latakia to mix with an ounce of gold 

 flake. How difficult is the thorough intermixing of 

 the two every smoker knows. Manufacturers now 

 insure the absolute amalgamation of the dark, coarse 

 leaf with the finer body of the mixture by assorting 

 the leaves before cutting. Kentucky or Virginia may 

 form the body. To this are added a few leaves of 

 the light-tissued Chinese herb to brighten^ and some 

 dark, blunt Latakia and stubby cigar-brown Java or 

 Japanese leaves to flavour. This bundle of varied 

 leaf is placed in the machine, compressed into one 

 mass by the rollers, and cut into shavings to be 

 kneaded and pulled into a perfect mixture, as shag. 

 By this method a mixture of perfect union and long, 

 silky strands is obtained, with none of the dusty and 

 fragmentary character of tobacco mixed after cut- 

 ting. 



The manufacture of flake tobaccos is the same, 

 except that the tobacco is pressed into cakes by 

 hydraulic power, and then cut into the familiar slices. 



