32 CIRCULAR 249, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
The principal uses of One Sucker are in the manufacture of chewing 
tobacco and by the rehandling trade. The declining consumption of 
chewing tobacco in this country (tables 35 and 36) has greatly reduced 
the domestic demand for this type. Some is used in the manufacture 
of short-filler cigars. It is first subjected to the bulk fermentation 
processes used in connection with cigar types and then cut and blended 
with other types for use in cheap cigars. 
THE REHANDLING TRADE 
The rehandling trade relates primarily to One Sucker tobacco 
but to a large extent also to dark fired types 22, 23, and 24. It 
represents a unique phase of the tobacco industry. Selected grades 
are subjected to processing methods which are treated as trade secrets. 
Under such names as Black Fat, Water Baler, and Dark African the 
tobacco is then exported to the west coast of Africa, especially Nigeria, 
Cameroons, and Dahomey, the West Indies, and Central America. 
It is used mainly for pipe smoking by native populations, and is sold 
to them in exchange for local products such as peanuts, palm oil and 
kernels, cocoa, piassara, rubber, and hides and skins. 
Partly because the tobacco serves as a medium of exchange for 
products of the interior, and partly because of the fixed tastes and 
preferences of the consumers, the requirements of the trade are very 
rigid. They vary according to locality, and tobacco that fails to meet 
local requirements is unsalable. Important among these require- 
ments are: 
Type or class of tobacco 
Quality 
Body (thickness of leaves) 
Size, both as to length and breadth 
Color 
Kind and percent of dressing 
Moisture content 
Number of leaves per head 
Number of heads per package or container 
Size and shape of container 
The domestic rehandling trade with West Africa has declined in 
recent years as a result of competition from other sources of supply. 
The following account of some of the methods of using One Sucker 
and native types of tobacco in Africa was supplied by H. W. Taylor.’ 
Natives of South Africa use One Sucker tobacco and marula nuts in making 
snuff. The marula is a stone fruit somewhat larger than a walnut. A potent 
beer is made of the flesh, and the kernel is roasted and pulverized. The stems of 
the tobacco are burned for the ashes. The tobacco leaves are ground in a stone 
mortar and mixed with the ashes of the stems and the pulverized marula nuts. 
In Southeast Africa rustica (Nicotiana rustica) ® is used instead of American to- 
bacco. Among the Pondos in the section southwest of Durban a native tobacco 
is used after a method of curing resembling that for Perique.’ 
The green leaves are packed in an earthen pot by pounding with a pestle. 
After a few days of fermentation the mass is spread out on the ground and allowed 
to become partially dry. This process is repeated three or four times until the 
tobacco becomes very black, when it is repacked, and the mouth of the pot is 
covered tightly with a piece of goatskin. The pot is then buried in a manure 
pile for several months after which the tobacco is considered ready for use. ‘These 
balls of tobacco command high prices among the natives. 
5 TayLor, H. W., unpublished report. 5 
6 N. rustica, is a coarse variety of the genus Nicotiana which is unusually high in nicotine content. It is 
produced on a small seale in this country, where its principal use is in the manufacture of nicotine sulfate 
for insecticides. ‘The tobacco of commerce is N. tabacum. 
7 See Perique, p. 58. 
