312 CULTURE, MANUFACTURE, ETC., OF TOBACCO. 



a dr} 7 kind, made from the best Havannah leaf, and 

 packed in cases. The uncut tobacco known as Caven- 

 dish, is entirely formed of fine leaf, pressed closely in 

 small cakes ; and cut up as wanted for the pipe, a small 

 hand-knife fastened to a lever being used by the 

 smoker ; or a strong knife and wooden trencher 

 according to the old form (see cut p. 57). This kind 

 of tobacco is much valued by connoisseurs, who find in 

 it the purest flavour and full sweetness of the leaf, 

 which is apt to be injured by the wettings and pressings 

 it undergoes in the European warehouses before it is 

 subjected to the cutting-machine. The process of dry- 

 ing and the thinness of the shreds into which it is cut, 

 gives still further chance of continuous loss of flavour. 

 Old tobacco-takers used always to " lament the weak- 

 ness of these latter times," which insisted on fine 

 cutting ; they delighted in the coarser-cut fuller- 

 flavoured tobaccos of their youthful days. 



Cigar-making is practised by workmen who are quite 

 distinct from the tobacco manufacturer. The two 

 trades are never combined in the same individual. 

 Thirty years ago, when cigars were looked on as 

 luxuries, and only sparingly smoked, it was the 

 custom in the tobacco trade, to engage the cigar maker 

 for a few days' work now and then, according as the stock 

 was sold. The chief workman would arrange with the 

 tobacco manufacturer, and bring with him his staff of 

 workmen, who were under his sole control ; he 

 contracting for the value of the conjoined labour of all, 

 and carrying them about from warehouse to warehouse. 



