Part 10 (1/2)
It has been stated above that much of the Perique tobacco is a subst.i.tute for the genuine. This subst.i.tute is made by taking inferior leaf and submitting it to a similar process, i. e., pressure and oxidation repeatedly. The process is abridged but a black tobacco results particularly when certain darkening ingredients are added. The moral is if you want genuine Perique be sure where you get it, and don't grudge the price.
CHEWING TOBACCO
The particular qualities required in leaf for this purpose are toughness, sweetness of taste, and a richness in oils and gums. Suitable leaf having been selected the leaf is cut and moulded into small plugs or ”chews”
which are put up in boxes for the market. Flavoring essences are of course plentifully used.
As well as plug, chewing tobacco may be of the variety known as _twist_, the leaves being spun and twisted in a continuous roll.
The plug consists of a wrapper and filler like the cigar, the brighter and better grades of leaf being used as wrappers. Burley leaf and the yellow leaf tobacco of Virginia, Kentucky and the Carolinas are princ.i.p.ally used.
The substances used for flavoring are liquorice, cane sugar, maple sugar, mola.s.ses, and rum, princ.i.p.ally. The plugs are packed in boxes of 72 lbs.
each, and also smaller boxes of 10 and 12 lbs. each.
The princ.i.p.al centers of the manufacture of pipe smoking and chewing tobacco are Missouri (St. Louis); North Carolina (Durham and Winston); Kentucky (Louisville); New Jersey (Jersey City); Virginia (Richmond) and Ohio (Cincinnati).
There are altogether about 400 establishments employing about 20,000 persons, and the value of the product is over 100 million dollars annually.
This cla.s.s of products is by its nature more suitable for concentration of manufacture than either cigars or cigarettes. Hence the small number of establishments.
Only about 10 million lbs. of manufactured tobacco is exported.
(_See references end of Chapter XV_)
CHAPTER XIV
CIGARETTES
STATISTICS. KINDS AND WHERE MADE. IMPORTED CIGARETTES. DOMESTIC CIGARETTES. CIGARETTE PAPERS.
CIGARETTES
A cigarette according to the meaning of the word is a small cigar. It consists of a roll of loose tobacco wrapped in a case of either paper or tobacco-leaf. In the latter case it is known as an all-tobacco cigarette.
Since the introduction of cigarette making machinery the output of cigarettes in the United States has grown enormously. This will be seen from the following figures which represent the output of cigarettes for the past 25 years:
Number of cigarettes Year manufactured in the United States.
1890 2,000,000,000 1895 3,500,000,000 1900 4,000,000,000 1905 6,500,000,000 1910 7,000,000,000
These figures taken from Government Reports are given in round numbers.
They include ”little cigars” which form about 15% of the totals. About one-third is at present exported. In addition to the manufactured cigarettes there is, of course, the large amount of cigarettes made directly by the smoker himself.
There are only about 500 establishments in the whole U. S. engaged in cigarette manufacture and about ten of these manufacture four times as many as all the rest together. There would in fact be fewer factories except for the popularity of certain brands of hand-made cigarettes. 95% of the total output is made in 4 cities, i. e., New York, Durham, N. C.; Richmond, Va.; and New Orleans. New York City alone manufactures about 60% of the whole; Richmond about 16%; New Orleans about 10% and Durham the balance.
Every country manufactures its own peculiar brand of cigarettes. The best known and most popular kinds of cigarettes are those known as Virginian, Turkish, Havana, Porto Rican, Mexican, Russian and Philippine.
The Havana, Porto Rican, Mexican and Philippine cigarettes are usually of the all-tobacco kind--the others being paper wrapped. They are generally made from the cuttings and smaller leaves of cigar leaf tobacco.