The Arizona sentinel., 1886-09-18
DOCTORING CIGARS.

How Tobacco is Made Glossy and Sup-
 piled With Salable Color.
 A veteran in the tobacco trade, who is the possesSor of over twenty patents for the sweating and coloring of to- bacco for cigar uses, said when asked by reporter what was new regarding to- bacco, that the most noteworthy 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 Zimmer Spanish and the Haines. The growers of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York are culti- vating 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 a great deal of money before they discover the secret of the process, and then again, if they don't 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 of. This is because it has been cooked and all it's life and vitality has been destroyed. There are things about tiavoring tobac- co, too, that lots of people don't know much about. Some persons claim that by blowing a 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 inn 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. It is regular business now to manufacture cigar fiavors, and they are put up in five, ten and twenty-gallon kegs, and in barrels of forty and forty-five gallons. First-class flavors can be bought for one dollar gallon.
 Another interesting feature of the trade is a process for giving to cigars a very rich, glossy and shining appear ance. No matter how dead-looking 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- tirely and perfectly renovates them. The process is a secret. The material used is as clear as water, yet It gives to cigars a much darker and richer ap- pearance. It can not come off from the cigar, has no taste and does not be- come dull by age. The material costs five dollars a 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 well every time; that is my experience. "-M. F. MaiI and Express.