92 CIRCULAR 249, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
country. If the cigars or other products so made are exported, 
they escape payment of internal revenue and the tobacco used is not 
subject to payment of import duties. If, on the other hand, any 
of the cigars, etc., are withdrawn for domestic consumption, both 
the import duty and the internal revenue tax must be paid. 
CIGARETTES 
The growth of the cigarette industry presents one of the most 
phenomenal aspects of tobacco history. From a very small beginning 
shortly after the Civil War, when only hand methods of manufacture 
were known, this class of tobacco products has grown to a position of 
predominance in output, in the number of users, in tax returns to the 
Government, and in the acreage devoted to culture of the raw material. 
Cigarette types of tobacco, moreover, represent a preponderance in 
volume among the domestic tobaccos entering international trade. 
The tobacco contained in practically all American cigarettes is a 
blend of two or more domestic types and imported tobacco. The 
type imported is known as oriental, more commonly referred to as 
Turkish, and is produced mostly in Turkey, Greece, and Bulgaria. 
Taking American cigarettes as a whole, the tobaccos which they 
contain are present in approximately the following percentages: 
Percent 
Plue=cured 2: & 2 eke Sse Se ae ee 53. 0 
Burléy.c S02 al ee eee ee 33. 5 
Maryland] 222 5c eee Bees 3. 5 
Onentalé@hurkish)eso.8 2 eae ee 10. 0 
100. 0 
These figures are not intended to represent the formula of any one 
brand, but are believed to represent the approximate average of all 
combined. 
Not only do cigarette blends combine different types of tobacco, 
but of a given type the blend usually contains leaf from two or more 
years’ crops, because the characteristics of one year’s tobacco vary 
from those of another year’s. The effect of these differences is 
lessened, and the stability of the blend is maintained by combining 
tobacco from successive crops. For example, a blend might include 
flue-cured tobacco of 1933, 1934, and 1935 crops, merging later into 
the 1934, 1935, and 1936 crops and later into those of 1935, 1936, and 
1937. 
Oriental tobacco is sometimes regarded by domestic producers as 
competing with their tobacco. This is probably an incorrect assump- 
tion. Oriental tobacco is highly aromatic and has been found to 
blend well with domestic cigarette types. The ‘‘American style” 
cigarette is unique among the cigarettes of the world. In foreign 
countries it is almost universally true that cigarettes are ‘‘straight’’ 
or unblended, that is, are made of whatever type of tobacco is 
locally preferred.° The same was largely true in this country until 
early in the present century. At that time little or no Burley and 
Maryland tobacco was used for cigarette purposes. Cigarettes in 
the main were either straight flue-cured or straight oriental, and 
16 In recent years a growing interest has been manifested in some European countries in cigarettes blended 
after the American pattern. ~The movement if continued may have significance in the domestic export trade. 
