Tobacco Leaves Part 7

The consumption of manufacturing products of tobacco in the U. S. has increased continuously since 1863 when it was 1.6 lbs. per head to the present time when it is 5-1/2 lbs. per head of the total population. This works out at about 16 lbs. per head for each male over 16 years. The consumption of tobacco in the U. S. is higher than in any other country and has increased more rapidly. For the past 40 years the consumption per head in U. S. has increased 240%; in England 56%; in France 24%; in Germany 23%. From this fact different deductions might be made. It may be that the Americans smoke more because they are fonder of tobacco than Europeans; or because they get better and cheaper tobacco; or because they can better afford to buy tobacco. The greatest percentage of increase in the United States is in the consumption of cigars.

The manufactured products are cla.s.sed as (1) cigars, (2) pipe smoking and chewing tobaccos, (3) cigarettes, (4) snuff. To each of these separate chapters will be devoted.

(_For references see Chapter XV_)

CHAPTER X

CIGARS. HISTORICAL AND GENERAL FACTS

HISTORY. STATISTICAL INFORMATION REGARDING THE CIGAR BUSINESS IN THE UNITED STATES.

CIGARS. HISTORICAL AND GENERAL FACTS

When the Spaniards landed for the first time on American soil they found the natives smoking the rolled-up tobacco leaves, that is a cigar. For a cigar is nothing more, four centuries having made little change in the Cuban cigar. The word _cigar_ is most probably derived from the Spanish word _cigarer_--to roll. Other derivations are given, but this seems etymologically the correct one; and we will rest content with it. In Spanish America to the present day the custom of smoking tobacco in the rolled form, either as cigars or cigarettes, prevails, rather than the custom of smoking in pipes which was the method of the northern aborigines from whom the English colonists adopted it. Smoking was introduced into Spain in the cigar form and into England in the pipe form. Cigars, however, at the present time, both in North and South America, form the princ.i.p.al item in the tobacco account of the people; we shall therefore enter somewhat fully into matters concerning their manufacture, etc.

Although, as stated, it is in the cigar form that smoking was introduced into Spain, it was not till about 1790 that cigars were used generally in Europe. A factory for the manufacture of cigars was established at Hamburg in 1796. The custom did not spread rapidly and did not reach any considerable proportion in England till about 1830 when the high duties were considerably reduced.

Cigar making has always been a staple industry in Cuba. It was there when the Europeans landed and it is there still. Its record is unbroken. There was always a greater or lesser exportation to Europe and elsewhere.

THE CIGAR BUSINESS OF THE U. S.

Of the various manufactured products of tobacco leaf, the cigar trade is the most important in the U. S., its value being greater than that of all other tobacco products combined.

The magnitude of this branch of the tobacco business may be gauged when we state that at the present time there are made annually in the U. S. cigars of all kinds to the amount of about 8-1/2 billions. The Census Bureau Report for 1912 shows that for that year the number of full-sized cigars made and on which tax was paid was in round numbers 7,500,000,000, and of "little cigars," that is under the regular size, about 1,000,000,000.

These figures are certainly stupendous, particularly when we consider that, in addition, at least several hundred more were imported and that only about 2,000,000 were exported. Uncle Sam evidently likes to smoke cigars.

To make these cigars requires a consumption of 136 million lbs. of cigar leaf. Nearly 50 million lbs. of this is imported at a gross cost (exclusive of duties) of about 35 million dollars, the rest of the leaf is home grown. The princ.i.p.al imports are from Cuba. In 1912 we imported cigar leaf from Cuba in amount nearly 23 million lbs. and in 1913 this increased to over 27 million lbs. valued at more than 16 million dollars. The imports of East Indian (Sumatran) leaf varies from 6 to 8 million lbs. and costs from 7 to 8 million dollars.

Although the amount of imported leaf used in cigar making shows a steady increase, being now more than 50% greater than a decade ago, yet the proportion of foreign leaf to home-grown leaf in the whole manufacture shows a steady decrease. This speaks well for the improving quality of American grown leaf.

There are in the United States about 26,000 cigar factories, both large and small. The large number of establishments is due to the fact that cigar making is still to a large extent a hand-making industry. About 135,000 persons are directly employed in the manufacture, nearly half of whom are women. The capital engaged in the business is reported as 150 millions and the value of the product 200 million dollars annually. The actual consumer pays about 300 million dollars for the cigars smoked, the difference between the cost of the product and the latter figure being the expense and profit of the retail handlers. The enormous growth of the cigar trade is seen when it is compared with 1860. In that year the annual value of this product was only 9 million dollars. The two states of New York and Pennsylvania are the centers of cigar manufacture. Between them they make nearly half of the entire product, Pennsylvania leading with about two thousand million cigars annually. Florida makes about 300 million. The price paid by the consumer works out to an average of about 4c for each cigar.

CHAPTER XI

CIGAR MAKING

HAND-MADE CIGARS. MACHINE-MADE CIGARS. CLa.s.sIFICATION OF CIGARS. TERMS USED IN THE CIGAR TRADE.

CIGAR MAKING

It was inevitable that modern progress should invade and revolutionize the old and slow methods of cigar making; and so it has. Smoking is a sentimental occupation and lends itself easily to romantic a.s.sociations. A good deal of romance and sentiment still hangs around the hand-made cigar and cigarette. In an up-to-date cigar factory, however, the whir of machinery and the precise, regular movements of automatic contrivances give little scope for sentiment.

Up to 1870 cigars were hand-made. All that was necessary was an inexpensive board, a cutting knife, and a block of wood with a stationary knife, known as a "tuck," for measuring and cutting the finished cigar.

About the time stated the "mold" was introduced. The mold is a wooden block about 18" x 6" x 3", a tool which facilitates the shaping of the "bunch" or filler part of the cigar and presses it into shape. This mold is now used in most "hand-made" cigar factories where the labor is subdivided into "bunch-makers" and "rollers," the latter putting on the binder and wrapper and finis.h.i.+ng the cigar.

It is the introduction of practically automatic machinery, however, which is revolutionizing the cigar-making business, and slowly but surely driving the "hand-made" cigar into the position occupied by the "hand-made" cigarette. And the writer cannot see why this should not be so. As it has been said, there is much sentiment about hand-made cigars.

But common sense seems to be on the side of the machine. We quite understand the difficulty of killing old prejudices and time honored customs; but it is difficult to understand how the flavor or quality of a cigar filler can be different whether it is pressed into the shape by a machine or by the hand of a workman; or what the precise improvement is when a wrapper leaf is put on and licked by a workman rather than by a clean machine under perfect sanitary conditions. However, sentiment still persists. Imaginary, or perhaps real, charms are ascribed to the hand-made goods and the smoker is willing and even wishful to pay a higher price for his fancy. The result is that the small factory is still predominant. It depends more on labor than on capital. But the large factories have an immense production. The condition will be best shown by stating that in less than 1 per cent of the cigar making establishments of the U. S.

nearly 50 per cent of the entire output is made, or, putting it another way, nearly three-fourths of all the licensed cigar factories produced less than one-tenth of the product. Of the 26,000 establishments in the U.

S. only in 2 is the annual output more than 50 million and in 27 the output runs from 25 to 50 million. Pennsylvania establishments, princ.i.p.ally in Philadelphia, produce 28% of the entire U. S. cigar output; New York State, princ.i.p.ally New York City, comes next with about 20%; and Ohio, princ.i.p.ally Cincinnati, third with about 8%.

For machine-made goods the princ.i.p.al machines used are the bunch rollers and the suction table. The former rolls the bunch of filler leaves and presses them into shape. The suction table is used for wrapping the cigar.

The operator places the wrapper leaf on a perforated plate. By pressing a foot lever a vacuum is created beneath this plate which holds the leaf smooth and snug against the table. The perforated plate is exactly the form which the wrapper must be to properly fit the cigar. It is easily cut around and trimmed to shape. The bunch from the bunch roller is then quickly encased in the wrapper. Human labor is necessary only to feed the machines and to spread the wrappers. 25,000 bunches can easily be wrapped in a week at a cost of $6 to $9 for labor (princ.i.p.ally female) and the upkeep of the machine. This in labor alone would formerly cost as much as $75.00. In the smaller "hand-made" factories, the method of procedure is about as follows: The leaf on receipt is opened and moistened. The "filler" leaf is separated from the wrapper. The filler leaf is made up into "books," a "book" being a bunch of leaves suitable for one cigar. The loose books are then allowed to ferment for a week or so when they are ready for use. The bunchmaker selects and arranges his leaves from each book, selects his binder and rolls the whole into cigar form. If a mold is used he puts the bunch in a matrix of the mold and fastens down the cover until the leaves are pressed into shape. They then go to the wrapper man and are wrapped either by machine or by hand, according to the cla.s.s of goods. The wrapping is begun at the lighting end and finished at the point which is called the head. After tr.i.m.m.i.n.g to gauge, the cigar is ready for inspection and cla.s.sification according to color, etc., and for banding.

Cigars according to their manufacture are cla.s.sed for trade purposes in various ways. The trade nomenclature embraces the following descriptions: Cigars, little cigars, all-tobacco cigars, stogies and cheroots.

Cigars proper have many subdivisions:

(1) IMPORTED CIGARS. This term is usually confined to cigars made in Cuba, and does not include Porto Rican or Philippines.

(2) PORTO RICO CIGARS. } } Used for cigars made in those places.

(3) PHILIPPINE CIGARS. }

(4) CLEAR HAVANAS. This term denotes a cigar made by hand in the U. S.

of Cuban tobacco exclusively and in the same style as in Cuba.

(5) SEED AND HAVANA. Up to about 50 years ago there were no clear Havanas made in the U. S., the best produced being a combination of Havana leaf and leaf grown in the states from imported Havana seed.

Hence the term which ordinarily means an American made cigar, the filler being wholly or partly of Cuban tobacco and the wrapper, a domestic or Sumatran leaf.

(6) DOMESTIC CIGARS. This term is used for cigars made in the U. S. in contra-distinction to imported cigars.

(7) NICKEL GOODS. Ordinary 5c cigars made either entirely, of domestic tobacco or with a Sumatran wrapper, and usually made partly or wholly by machine. It also usually includes "segundos" or "seconds," i. e., cigars of a better type made to sell at higher prices but which on account of some defect are rejected on inspection. Sometimes clear Havanas made of sc.r.a.p filler and inferior wrapper are included. These cigars have a vast variety of designations and make up the general stock of most cigar stores. The cost of production does not usually exceed $20.00 per thousand and they sell to dealers at from $25.00 to $30.00.

(8) STOGIES, TOBIES, ETC. CHEROOTS. Cigar shaped rolls of cheap domestic tobacco made quickly by machine, and of various sizes.

Cheroots are open at both ends. The filler of stogies is usually a western grown leaf of full size, but rough quality. They are manufactured princ.i.p.ally in Louisville, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Wheeling, etc.

One of the large tobacco companies operates about 25 large cigar factories in various centers of the U. S. Here are made all cla.s.ses of domestic cigars, but all are made under the same conditions of sanitation, economic handling and strict supervision. The leaf is prepared, selected, fermented, blended, etc., in the company's own special leaf houses and is despatched to the various factories as needed. All the better cla.s.s of domestic cigars are hand-made, machinery being used in making the cheaper grades. There are special factories for the making of "little cigars," of which a vast number are made on account of their popularity. These include the package goods and those put up in cardboard boxes of which such brands as "Virginia Cheroots" and "Royal Bengals" are types. By the terms "little cigar" the trade recognizes all cigars under the regular standard size and which weigh less than 3 pounds per thousand. In some "little cigar"

factories these little cigars are not made from inferior leaf. They are made usually from the small leaves of the tobacco intended for higher priced goods, but which on account of faulty size cannot be used. The leaf is, however, cured and prepared in exactly the same way. In addition the "sc.r.a.p" or waste portions of the high priced leaf is used for fillers for little cigars. The little cigars of this type are usually of first-rate quality and on account of their small cost give excellent value to the smoker.

CIGARS. MISCELLANEOUS

There are a good many terms used in the cigar trade to denote color, size, quality, etc., which smokers should know the meaning of. Most of these terms are Spanish, because the cigar trade was for a long time confined to Cuba.

_Terms used to denote the quality of cigar leaf_

DESECHO. The finest quality; the top leaves of plant; best because they have received most suns.h.i.+ne and dew.