Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1890-01-25
TO MAKE TOBACCO SWEAT.
b Process Expiainsd bv q Warehouse
Clerk Results Obtained
TBaltimore Hera d.


TBaltimcre Herald
SSwaating 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 tern sweating meant"
asked the reporter.
Trying out the rankness aud the rum"
answered the young man. 1T 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 the TO.
bacco is cut II 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 ii stays during the
summer. The natural heat generated
suffices to do the sweating. Sometimes
the heat becomes so great hat a pile is set
ON fire by spontaneous combustion. though
this does not often occur. The tobac- o is
packed stall by sta k with the leaf at.
tached, each stalk and leaf being called q
hand
The resweating is done, as l said be.
fore, 10 dry out the rankuess. and the
ouHti hVts Auuh anu W DIluR OUT lDb
dark colors that are so much admired in
Cigar wrappers This, in fact, is the only
way in which the desirable Maduro aud
Oscuro shades can be produced. The re.
sweating does not Affect the strength
Of the leaves, but only the
color. Or, perhaps, should
say, it does not render the tobacco
more strong. Ii is a popular fallacy that
q strong cigar must have a dark wrapper,
or that a dark wrapper indicates a strong
cigar. AS a matter OF fact, If anything.
the dark resweated leaves are milder than
than the natural buff and snuff colored
leaves"
How is the resweiting donel" fell
from the mouth Of the listening scribe.
w get the hands of toUacco in large
boxes from the dealers. Ii is first taken
out Of these boxes and cased-there,
like that, " he said. lointing TO a man who
was gathering up double bandiuls of the
stalks and dipping them, butts down.
ward, for a in a trough filed
with water. which was deeply d, ed 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 10
one hour. The STALKS are then put back
into the orig nal boxes, and there they re.
main for forty. eight hours Zach of
these boxes holds from 100 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 iected 10 a steam heat rang.
ing from Odegrees 10 $50 de recs during
periods varying from three days to thirty.
three days. &C ordiHg to the kind Of to.
ba co under treatment The quality OF
leaf varies very greatly in this particular.
j or instance, the crop of icnnsylvania
leaf Of 1881 was the hardest TO sweat of
an l ever 60 in the establishment. VIII 10
that Of 1879 and of 1904 was compare.
lively easily treated. No two crops of
tobacco are alike This years
crop from the same ground with
the same weather and under, SO
far as we know. the same co1di.
tions every way. may I've no more like
that OF last year than lavsna leaf is like
Connecticut leaf. Ii diiiers in strength.
favor. quality and teN ure. and for no ex.
plaiuable reason. sometimes. doubtless,
the season has something 10 do with il
After the tobacco out of the
sweating room II is removed from the air.
tight cases and again put on bulk in small
piles. where it gradual cools during
from forty 10 forty eight hours. After.
ward it is Jacket In the original cases and
IS ready for the market. A ter being re-
swtaied the leaf has "a sweet odor. very
unlike the rank perfume it gives of in its
natural state. Thu width o. tobacco lea es
vary from four inches to two feet The
cost OF resweating Is 50 per case or 2 cents
per pound.