Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-09-02
DocToRlNG CIGARS.
How Tobacco is Made Glossy and Su,
piled With a Salable Color.

How Tobacco is Made Glossy and Sup
Piled With a Salable Color.
A veteran in the tobacco trade. who
is the possessor of over twenty patents
for the sweating and coloriag of to-
bacco for cigar uses, said when asked by
reporter what was new regarding to-
bacco, that the most notew orthy feature
of the trade just now is the change in
the home production from the old.
fashioned ''seed-leaf" to the Havana
seed" The grades thus produced are
the Wilson hybrid. the thinner Spanish
and the Haines. The growers of Ohio,
Pennsylvania and New York are cult
waiting these hybrid varieties largely,
and the result is proving most satisfac-
tory, the Havana flavor remaining dis.
tinctly throughout many successive
crops. A noticeable increase in the
cultivation of tobacco is noticed in
Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and the
demand for cigars is increasing in a
marked degree over the whole country.
In speaking of the experiments made to
color tobacco properly for use in cigars
the reporter informant said:
''To remove the gum and improve
the quality and take the swelling out Of
the leaf, it must be subjected to such a
degree of heat as will accomplish those
objects. The same is true if dark, uni
form and shining glossy colors are
wanted. You can not make dark col
ors and improve the quality of tobacco
at the same and under the same degree
OF heat. People often experiment a
long time and spend great deal Of
money before they discover the secret
OF the process, and then again, if they
dom discover it at all, they simply cook
and scent up the tobacco without taking
out any of the gum. The 'colors' are
dead black, blue black or slate, and
when the tobacco is used and after it is
on cigar it cracks and peels off. This
is because it has been cooked and all its
life and vitality has been destroyed.
There are things about tlavoring tobac-
co, too, that lots of people don't know
much about. Some persons claim that
by blowing little flavor on the filters
that forty or fifty thousand cigars can be
favored for five or six dollars This
would be only about ten or fifteen cents
per thousand, and is an impossibility,
for by merely blowing the flavor on the
tobacco, only the parts of the tobacco
which gets the flavor are i'm
proved, and when such cigars are
smoked one puff is seedy and the next is
favored too much. To prepare a good
flavor requires such a knowledge of
chemistry as very few possess. 1t is
regular business now to manufacture
cigar favors, and they are put up in
five, ten and twenty-gallon kegs, and in
barrels of forty and forty-five gallons.
First-class favors can be bought for one
dollar gallon.
s'Another interesting feature of the
trade is process for giving to cigars a
very rich, glossy and shining appear
ance. No matter how ad-looking a
cigar may be, the process makes them
look as though they were made from
the richest, oiliest, finest gummy. to-
bacco, and no matter how old and dried
out the cigars may be, the process en-
tjrely and perfectly renovates them.
The process is secret. The material
used is as clear as water, yet 1t gives to
cigars a much darker and richer ap-
pearance. 1t can not come Off from
the cigar, has no taste and does not be-
come dull by age. The material costs
five dollars gallon. The fact is the
public Is continually demanding cigars
of better quality, and the only way to
keep up with the times is for manufac-
turers to improve their tobacco to the
fullest extent The way to do this is to
throw aside all prejudice and old
fashioned notions. The looks of cigars
sells them, and if the wrappers are dark
and shiny they will sell we'll every time;
that is my experience N Y. Mail and
Express.