The Savannah morning news., 1902-04-21
GERMS AND CIGARS.


IL portents and promises hold good,
there are enjoyable days ahead for
smokers: that is. smokers who know
the difference between anything to
raise a fog and the high-grade pun
gent, fragrant. tasteful, soothing to-
high price that economy has prohibited
its use except by the favorites of for
tune. In the coming happy days 1t
/ will be possible for any tobacco-lover
to burn his Clear Havana" at a cost
of not above a nickel, or he may vary
his smoke according to taste, to Puer-
/ toriquino or Filipino or Key West at
not more than like cost. That, of
1 course. is all provided promises now
made are kept to the letter The prin-
cipal agencies that are working to the
end of cheapening and improving our
cigars are more scientific cultivation of
tobacco. expansion and microbes. The
microbe sharps are doing the most
promising.
We have heretofore noted that in
Connecticut and Pennsylvania they
are raising wrapper tobacco under
great tents of cotton cloth. The pro-
duct of these tented fields is said to
be a clear. bright. fragrant leaf that
not only looks and smells but burns
and tastes we'll. We have also re-
ferred to the fact that Florida is now
growing a. cigar tobacco that COM
pares very favorably with the best
products of Cuba, and the Florida
production is being increased every
season. The annexation of Porto Rico
has given us the cigars of that island
and they are not at all bad cigars
at lower prices than ever before. And
said with respect to the Philippines.
These several agencies can be calcu-
lated upon with reasonable accuracy
We know about what to expect from
them.
But the agency that is most puz-
zling. and which holds out the promise
of revolutionizing the cigar business,
is the microbe. Certain of the bacter-
iologists assure us that the flavor of
Clear Havana" is nothing after all
but the result of the beneficent Offices
of certain specific microbe, which
can be isolated and cultivated at
pleasure; and when it has been culti-
waited 1t can be made to get in it's
work on any kind of tobacco that may
be placed before it. All that is needed
is few microbes to start with and a
liberal supply of beef tea. The mi
crobes will multiply at a rate to
startle even a lightning calculator, and
beef tea is cheap. When a sufficiently
large colony of the little organisms
has been raised 1t is turned loose upon
lot of American or other tobacco.
and presto! 1t becomes Havana to-
bacco. A Chicago paper tells about a
manufacturer of that city who is al
ready employing the process. Secur-
ing some of the bacteria from a real
Havana leaf, it says. he propagates
them in beef tea. Then he takes
American tobacco, puts it through
what is known as the sweating pro-
cess, and while in the sweat the Ha-
vana bacteria are injected into it, and
the tobacco comes out with such bo-
| quet and flavor that not even the most
critical expert can tell 1t from the
leaf grown at Vuelto Abajo plantation.
Thus anyone in the secret can grow
Havana tobacco microbes to burn. and
which smokers would enjoy burning at
the rate of five cents per roll. If this
is true. may it not be that the flor
de cabbage" will pass from joke to a
reality. and prove a decent smoke,
too? Cabbage leaves inoculated with
Pennsylvania tobacco bacteria would
no doubt produce quite as good a
smoke as some of the ''stogfes" now on
| the market. In this age of germs,
good as well as evil, there is no tell
ing what may be expected from that
| source.