THE MANUFACTURED TOBACCO INDUSTRY 
(Chewing and smoking tobacco and snuff) 
At the present time, around 143 factories manufacture chewing and smoking 
tobacco and snuff. Since 1918, when over 1,800 factories were operating, this 
branch of the industry has steadily declined, as consumer tastes turned more 
to cigarettes. Although the volume of snuff manufactured has remained practi- 
cally the same over these years, production of the chewing and smoking prod- 
ucts has dropped from around 450 million pounds to less than 150 million. 
Chewing tobacco 
The manufacture of chewing tobacco was at a high level for a long period 
up to and including 1918. Since that year, which marked the beginning of the 
most rapid expansion of the cigarette industry, this form of manufacture has 
steadily declined. All of the forms of manufactured tobacco that are classed 
as chewing are also used more or less for pipe smoking. The Internal Revenue 
Service classifies chewing tobacco into four kinds--plug, twist, fine-cut, and 
scrap. 
Nearly all types of tobacco are used in the manufacture of chewing, even 
those that are primarily cigar and cigarette types, as well as those that are 
unsuited for use in either of these forms. Although both flue-cured and bur- 
ley are considered cigarette types, both owe their early use to the chewing 
tobacco industry, and continue to furnish some leaf for the manufacture of 
these products. The dark air-cured and, to some extent, fire-cured types go 
into various chewing forms; and cigar leaf is the principal kind of tobacco 
going into the scrap chewing product. 
Plug is made of leaf tobacco pressed into flat cakes after the stems have 
been removed. The plug consists of two parts, filler and wrapper. Fillers 
consist mainly of the heavier grades of flue-cured, burley, and dark air-cured 
tobacco, and some fire-cured. The wrappers are leaves carefully selected for 
fine quality and appearance. Various saucing compounds are added _ to the to- 
bacco, such as licorice, maple sugar, honey, etc. Two distinct kinds of plug 
are made--one flat or thin and moderately sweetened, and the other thick and 
heavily sweetened. 
Twist tobacco probably originated on the farm where the grower found it 
convenient to make his leaf tobacco up into twists for future use. Twist is 
similar to that product known as roll tobacco, which was’ the very earliest 
form of tobacco manufacture. In making commercial twist, the leaf is stemmed 
and twisted into small rolls and folded. Most twist is treated with the same 
kind of saucing preparations used for making plug, but some is left plain. 
One-sucker, burley, and fire-cured are the types of leaf used in the manufac- 
ture of twist. Hand labor is used to a large extent in making twist in the 
small factories located in producing areas, but it is manufactured by machine 
methods by larger firms. 
Fine-cut tobacco, as indicated by the name, is made of finely shredded 
leaf, cut much the same as for the manufacture of cigarettes. However, some 
forms may be so finely cut as to appear coarsely ground, and these somewhat 
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