A modern cigar-making machine. 



are therefore costly. Generally each half of a 

 natural leaf will yield two or three binder pieces, 

 and the trimmings go largely into the manufac- 

 ture of loose-leaf chewing, a lower value outlet. In 

 tobacco sheet, the entire binder leaves are used, 

 even though they may be broken or damaged. 

 There is no waste or trimmings in cutting the 

 binder. 



The savings in labor cost,as well as in leaf cost, 

 is also important in the development of this proc- 

 essed sheet for cigar-binder purposes. Natural 

 binders must be hand-fed into the cigar-making 

 machine, but the sheet isfedautomaticallyfroma 

 spool, thus reducing the workers required from 2 

 to 1 on most machines. 



The use of sheet as wrappers is not as 

 widespread as binders, but the potential saving in 

 this area is also considerable, both in leaf and 

 labor costs. 



The output of cigar-making machines can vary 

 between 750 to well over 10,000 per hour 

 depending on the size and shape of the cigar, the 

 degree of finish desired, and the type of filler and 

 binder leaf used. 



A few of the higher-priced cigars are still 

 handmade. The filler leaves are blended and 

 shaped, and wrapped with binder leaves. Then it 

 is placed into the lower half of a mold block con- 

 taining usually 20 individual molds the shape and 

 size of the finished cigar. The upper half is placed 

 over the mold block and held in position under 

 pressure for 25-45 minutes. The molded bunches 

 are taken out one a time, and the wrapper rolled 



22 



on. Wrappers must be the finest of the tobaccos 

 used in cigars, of good color, and without 

 imperfections. 



The wrapper strip is wrapped spirally around 

 the cigar, beginning at the base, and tapered off to 

 form the head. The end of the wrapper is fastened 

 with a vegetable gum paste, or similar material. 



In making the very finest handmade cigars, no 

 form or mold is used. These cigars are entirely 

 shaped, sized, and rolled by hand, on a specially 

 made board or block fitted with a knife for 

 clipping the head and the end. A high degree of 

 skill and dexterity is required in making uniformly 

 high grade handmade cigars. 



Cigars are normally wrapped individually in 

 cellophane. A large proportion are now packaged 

 in "five-pack" cellophane-wrapped containers for 

 handy merchandising by supermarkets, and 

 other outlets. However, many are still packed in 

 boxes of 25 and 50. The cigars are carefully 

 packed according to color shade, so that each 

 box will be uniform in color. 



About 13,000 persons currently are employed 

 in cigar factories. Currently about 5 billion cigars 

 are produced annually in the United States and 

 Puerto Rico. 



Approximately 60 million pounds (27 million 

 kilograms) (farm-sales weight) of domestic leaf 

 are used annually and another 40 million pounds 

 (18 million kilograms) are imported. Consider- 

 ably less than half of the domestic cigar leaf is 

 used in cigar manufacture. The balance being 

 used in chewing and smoking tobacco and snuff. 



The Manufactured Tobacco Industry 



The products of this industry are chewing 

 tobacco, smoking tobacco, and snuff, which are 

 produced in around 37 factories. Since 1918, 

 when over 1,800 factories were operating, the 

 number of factories has steadily declined. As 

 consumer tastes turned to cigarettes, all three 

 products declined until 1970. Since 1970, 

 chewing tobacco has increased in use, snuff pro- 

 duction has remained stable, but smoking 

 tobacco has continued to decline. 



Chewing Tobacco 



The manufacture of chewing tobacco was at a 

 high level through 1918. Since that year, which 

 marked the beginning of the most rapid expansion 

 of the cigarette industry, this product has sharply 

 declined. Currently, four types of chewing 

 tobacco products are recognized including plug, 

 twist, fine-cut, and loose-leaf. 



Nearly all types of tobacco are used in the manu- 

 facture of chewing, even those that are primarily 

 cigar and cigarette types. Although both flue- 

 cured and burley are considered cigarette types, 

 both owe their early use to the chewing tobacco 



