60 EXPORT AND MANUFACTURING TOBACCOS. 
‘The manufacture of this class-of plug is still one of the most impor- 
tant uses of flue-cured tobacco. The grade of tobacco used for this 
purpose is the heavier bodied, thoroughly ripened, red and mahog- 
any filler leaf produced principally in the western portion of the flue- 
cured belt in the Piedmont section of Virginia and North Carolina. 
Figure 25 shows chewing leaf, plug, and twist tobaccos in various 
stages of manufacture. Flue-cured tobacco and bright tobacco are 
often spoken of as being synonymous. Much flue-cured tobacco, 
however, particularly that best suited for plug filler, as grown in the 
western portion of the Old Belt known as the Winston-Salem and 
Martinsville district, can at best be classed as no more than semi- 
bright, and much of it is red or dark mahogany. 
Another important use to which flue-cured tobacco is put is in the 
manufacture of granulated smoking tobacco, which, in fact, probably 
Fic. 25.—Stages in the manufacture of chewing, twist, and plug tobaccos. (Photographed by the Bureau 
of Soils.) ; y 
utilizes a greater number of pounds of this type of leaf than any other 
single use. On the market the leaf suitable for granulating is gener- 
ally spoken of as ‘‘smokers”’ and consists principally of the light- 
bodied, ‘‘poor” leaf and scrap obtained from the bottom of the plant. 
It is obtained from all portions of the flue-cured district. 
The great center for the manufacture of granulated smoking tobacco 
is Durham, N. C. The output of granulated smoking tobacco in 
Durham is more than 30,000,000 pounds annually. 
The extensive use of this granulated form of smoking tobacco has 
developed almost entirely since the Civil War, and this fact, together 
with the nearly simultaneous development of the machine-made 
244 
