The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-09-01

there are made over 700, 000, 900 of these
cigars annually, besides about 1905, 0C0, 000
seed and Havana cigars, which are COM
posed mainly of a Sumatra tobacco wrap
per and a filler of Havana tobacco
grown in the Remedies district-a district
totally apart and distinct from that pro-
ducing the tobacco which the native Gu
ban uses in his high-grade stock The
American demand for the high-grade leaf
has been felt more and more by the Gu
ban manufacturers, and has led them to
use other varieties of tobacco
Only-a comparatively small crop Of the
best cigar tobacco can be grown in Cuba.
This tobacco has a curious aroma and
fragrance in burning which is possessed
by no other tobacco in the world. not
even the leaf raised from carefully Sc
1ected seed, grown on carefully selected
land in climate approximately the
same as Cuba's. There is no more to-
bacco land in Cuba which can be cultivat
ed for finer grades. The bulk Of this to-
bacco is, and always has been, grown in
the small region of Cuba known as Pinar
del Rio. This is the renowned Vuelta
tobacco, which is grown in the Vuelta
Abajo valley. Here the land was made
by successive overfiows from the sea.
which seems to have given a pecuIia.
fertility to the soil.
Illus there Is not nearly enough 4
Pinar del Rio tobacco to go around. and
there is as great proportion of poor to-
bacco grown In Cuba as elsewhere. Even
in the old days the supply was so scant
that although the importation of foreign
tobacco into Cuba was expressly for
hidden by law, the manufacturers were
permitted to receive a certain amount
yearly from Porto Rico, to be used In the
Vuelta scraps or cuttings in the manu-
facture of Cuban cigarettes. The Porto
R1can tobacco was not thought worth
making into cigars by the old-time Gu
ban cigar manufacturer, with whom the
quality of his goods and the unblemished
reputation OF his factory product ranked
second only to his untarnished family
name
He was an enthusiast in his business
Men worth millions were found at their
factories at a. M, personally superin-
tenolng the process Of cigarmaking. Ex-
pert selecters of tobacco and blenders of
lne various growths and types of the
Vuelta leaf We're employed at princelv
salaries to buy tobacco from certain f,eIds
or farms. Yearly they tested it's burning
quantities and it's aroma with the ona
view OF taking the types and blending
them into a perfect whole. which could
not be distinguished from the nroduc+ or
the previous year, or ten years before
possible. So dear was the high QUALITY
OF ms goods to the manufacturer of those
days that in one bad year, soon after the
TOO neavy use of guano as fertilizer
Peoro Murias actually closed his factory
Tor the year and declined to work the to.
pacco, informing the trade In all narts
OF the world that it was not I'D to his
standard ~ AA'S
Ioday such course would be regarded
as an expensive advertising trick. Then
IL was simply the outcome of the In
tense personal pride Murias took in the
proouct OF MS FACTORY, a pride shown to
ieoeel OF less extent by almost every
Spaniaro IN the business. 1t is a curious
idcs tnat nearly all the high-grade Span
iaros IN the cigar manufacturing bust
ness IN those days came from Asturias
In those days the Havana cigar Was
wrapped in leaf Of Vuelta. the so,,,o
tobacco used inside for the ttIIer -
was dark, rather rough-looking leaf
which If held up to the light showed an
lridescent growth of follicles or tjny hairs
covering its surface When the ciyor
was smoked two distinct fragrances were
obtained, one from the smoke taken INFO
the mouth, and another from the burn.
ing end of the cigar, and both delicious
In those days Partidos tobacco was
pracucaily unknown. 1t grew sparselv
III the phosphate soil of the Partidos
district, which lies eastward from Pinar
del Rio, along the high gulf coast. and
can almost be said to be the connectine
INK between the magnificent Vuelta to.
bacco of P-nar del Rio and the coarser
ana more acrid growths of Yara (now
extinct, Remedies, Manicaragua. and
the poor tobacco lands. The cigar value