The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1888-02-14
TO MAKE TOBACCO SWEAT.
The Process Explained by Warehouse
CIerk-ResuIts Obtained.

The Process Explained by g Warehouse
CIerk-ResuIts Obtained.
baltimore Herald
Sweating and resweating tobacco,
said a young man in the top story Of a
South Charles street warehouse ARE very
interesting and curious industries.
What does the term sweating mean?"
asked the reporter.
drying out the rankness and the gum,
answered the young man. at also
brings out the dark colors. l will ex-
plain the process to you briefly, 1t is
applied only to the leaf tobacco which is
used for cigar wrappers. After tie to-
bacco is cut it is put on bulk-that is, in
large piles where it remains during the
winter Then. the following summer,
after being closely packed, it is put
through the first sweat 1t is put on
bulk in large warehouses like huge bun
dies of hay, and there it stays during the
summer. The natural heat generated
sutices to do the sweating. Sometimes
the heat becomes so great that pile is set
on fire by spontaneous combustion, though
this does not often occur. The tobacco is
packed stalk by stalk with the leaf at
tached, each stalk and leaf being called
hand
The resweating is done, as said be-
fore. to dry out the rankness. and the
supernuous gum and to bring out the
dark colors that are so much admired in
cigar wrappers This, in fact, is the only
way in which the desirable Maduro and
Oscuro shades can be produced The re-
sweating does not affect the strength
of the leaves, but only the
color. Or perhaps. -, l should should
more strong 1t is popular fallacy that
a strong cigar must have a dark wrapper,
or that dark wrapper indicates strong
cigar AS matter of fact, if anything,
the dark resweated leaves are milder than
than the natural buff and snuff colOred
leaves
How is the resweating done2" fell
from the mouth of the listening scribe.
"We get the hands of tobacco in large
boxes from the dealers. 1t is first taken
out Of these boxes and cased-there.
like that. he said. pointing to man who
was gathering up double handfuls of the
stalks and dipping them, butts down
ward for moment in a trough filed
with water, which was deeply dyed with
the coloring matter of the leaves AFTER
soaking the ends of the bands in the water
they are placed on a casing table, stems
upward, where they are allowed to drain
this consuming from fifteen minutes to
one hour. The stalks are then put back
into the original boxes, and there they re-
main for forty eight hours. Each of
these boxes holds from 300 to $50 pounds
of leaf tobacco.
Next the tobacco is tightly packed In
Theoretically sealed cast iron boxes, lined
with wood, the boxes holding one third of
a case apiece. After being sealed up. the
boxes are sub ected to a steam heat rang
ing from 90 degrees to 80 degrees during
periods varying from three days to thirty
three days, &C ording to the kind of to-
ba co under treatment The quality of
leaf varies very greatly in this particular.
+ or instance, the crop of Pennsylvania
leaf of 1881 was the hardest to sweat of
any ever go in the establishment, while
that of 1883 and of 1884 was compare
lively easily treated No two crops of
are alike This years
crop from the, same ground, with
the same weather and under, so
tions every way, may be no more like
that of last year than Havana leaf is like
Connecticut leaf. 1t differs in strength,
favor, quality and texture, and for no ex-
plainable reason sometimes, doubtless,
the season has something TO do with it
After the tobacco comes out of the
sweating room it is removed from the air
tight cases and again put on bulk in small
piles, where it gradually cools during
from forty to forty eight hours. After
ward it is packed in the original cases and
is ready for the market. After being re-
sweated the leaf has a sweet odor, very
unlike the rank perfume it gives off in its
state The width of tobacco lea es
vary from four inches to two feet. The
cost of resweating is So per case or 2 cents
per pound.