AMERICAN TOBACCO TYPES, USES, AND MARKETS 9 
the more humid air from the outside to soften the tobacco. When the 
leaves are pliable and can be handled without breakage they are 
sorted into grades, tied in bundles, placed on sticks, and bulked in 
readiness for marketing. Each priming is cured in turn, there being 
five to six primings in a single crop. 
The tobacco produced in the oldest part of what is now the flue- 
cured district first came into prominence as an export and later as a 
chewing type. Curing methods progressed in succession from air- 
curing to fire-curing to flue-curing. Its export demand seems_ to 
have grown out of the light-colored piebald or mottled markings of 
AMA 219 
Fiaurr 4.—This picture shows the firebox and flue exit of a flue-curing barn. 
Usually there are two fireboxes about 6 feet long. The flue exit is not always 
immediately over the firebox as in this case. Oil burners, in lieu of wood 
fires, are coming into rather extensive use. 
the leaf which found favor in France soon after the War of 1812. 
iOS) 
The present demand for flue-cured tobacco both domestic and 
foreign arises primarily from the cigarette business. The chewing 
habit has declined markedly (see tables 35 and 36) and its influence 
on the demand for flue-cured tobacco is comparatively unimportant. 
Flue-cured tobacco today dominates the American export trade in 
tobacco. 
Characteristics sought by cigarette manufacturers are found mostly 
in grades known to the trade as cutting leaf, cutters, and the better 
erades of lugs. The colors that command the highest prices are bright 
lemon yellow followed in order by orange and red. From these, the 
colors of flue-cured tobacco range down the scale to mahogany brown. 
In addition, the demand is for mild aromatic qualities. The success 
with which flue-cured tobacco has met these requirements may be 
judged from the expansion in acreage as cigarette production has 
increased. 
Exports of flue-cured tobacco reached their highest level during the 
3 years from July 1928 to June 1931. From 1930 to the outbreak of 
