outside ends and the tips overlapping in the middle. Quite frequently, the 
bales are run through a heated sweat room for a few weeks before being shifted 
to permanent storage. 
Formerly, when natural binders were used in all cigar manufacture, it was | 
important to sort the leaf carefully with respect to soundness, color, length, 
etc. However, since the use of reconstituted tobacco sheet as the binder has 
become general, this is unnecessary except for the very small quantities still 
purchased for use as natural binder. 
In the case of the filler types, since the trend is toward short filler, 
or the use of smail pieces, it is also unnecessary for the leaf in these types 
to be carefully sized or sorted. Most of the tobacco to be used in short fill- 
er in cigars is bulk-sweated. Puerto Rican filler is still classed, bulked, 
and sweated, and most of the better qualities are stemmed before packing. 
<_ SS es 
Figure 41.--Puerto Rican tobacco being bulked. 
