Tobacco

INTERNATIONAL BUREAU OF AMERICAN REPUBLICS
u TON, DAR Too DIRECTOR

FRANCISCO J. YANES, SECRETARY

TOBACCO

(Reprint of an article from the Monthly Bulletin of the International
Bureau of American Republics, January, 1909)

WASHINGTON, D. C.
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1909

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HE tobacco crop in 1907 amounted almost to three
billion pounds. Allowing as a moderate average
25 cigars and 100 cigarettes to the pound, this
gives an annual product of 25,000,000,000 cigars,
100,000,000,000 cigarettes for the world’s con-
sumption during the year, with plenty to spare
for all the snuff, chewing, and pipe tobacco de-

manded by such users of the weed. Assuming that the total popula-

tion of the world is 1,600,000,000, the per capita employment of
tobacco can be reasonably calculated.

The discovery by Europeans of the native disposition of this indige-
nous plant was cotemporary with the discovery of America. CoLum-
BUS, it is asserted, noticed the Indians drawing in smoke from a
kind of pipe and exhaling it through their nostrils. All reports
from explorers and adventurers, whether in the southern or northern
regions of the new continents, contain references to the habits the
Indians had of consuming this unknown herb in one way or another.
Smoking seems to have been most general, but among some tribes
it was chewed, by others it was considered a sacred drug with which
to produce purging and emesis, by others again it served as a stimu-
lant or narcotic. All Indians, however, agreed that tobacco added
greatly to their physical and spiritual well being. The Spanish,
the Portuguese, and the English were not slow to adopt the habit
in vogue wherever they found it, and it was soon introduced into
Europe. Sir Watter Rateien popularized pipe smoking in England
by the method principally employed in the regions visited by his
countrymen. The Portuguese had already begun the cultivation of
the plant in southern Europe, and from them it was brought in 1560
to France by Nicor, who studied its properties in a scientific way.
From Nicor is derived the word nicotin, the essential alkaloid which
characterizes tobacco wherever grown. Claims have been made that
the Chinese, ages before the discovery of America, had the habit of
smoking, but that they used tobacco can not be proved, although it
is not improbable that some similar leaf was known to them. Sran-
LEY, in his expedition across the center of darkest Africa, found the

natives following with a like custom, but they used the banana or a
52

JUL 24 1909

: D, oT p.

TOBACCO: THE AMERICAN INDIAN’S GIFT TO CIVILIZATION. 53

similar leaf in their pipes, and tobacco was not found where the
connection with the white man could not be traced.

Romance and poetry were associated with tobacco perhaps even
more in its earlier years than to-day. Some of Rateran’s best inter-
views with Queen Exizasern were on this subject; Ben Jonson
wrote verses, as did all the other poets of his time, except SraKn-
SPEARE, clubs were founded solely to enjoy it, and a man’s rating in
society was established by tobacco. “When King James’s famous

THE TOBACCO PLANT CROWNED BY ITS FLOWER AND BLOSSOMS.

On the right the flower has been removed, but the suckers are developing. Both flower and
suckers must be removed to prevent the plant from going to seed, as well as to stimulate the
growth of the leaf, which is the important consideration in tobacco culture.

* Counterblast Against Tobacco ” was issued, “ drinking ” tobacco, as
smoking was then often called, was almost universal not only in Eng-
land but in Europe. One of the most famous epigrams of the time
ran thus:

Sir Walter Raleigh! name of worth,
How sweet for thee to know

King James, who never smoked on earth,
Is smoking down below.

a;

54 INTERNATIONAL BUREAU OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLICS,

In the New World the romantic side of it was coupled with a very
practical influence in populating the Virginia colonies. The whole
region of the James had given itself 6ver to the cultivation of tobacco,
so that even the streets of the towns were devoted to it, and many
young men went out as settlers and led rather lonely lives. These
young men had plenty of tobacco, but no money or sweethearts with
which to grace a home, The London Company, then mostbusily engaged
in the trade between England and Virginia, devised a plan by which a
cargo of young women of good social position was sent out to comfort
the young men; there was to be, of course, no coercion of any kind,
but each young man on his selection of and acceptance by one of the

ARRANGEMENT AND CONSTRUCTION OF TOBACCO FLOWERS.

The structure gives evidence that tobacco flowers are naturally self-fertile.

young women was to pay to the company “120 Ib. waight of best
leafe tobacco,” for reimbursement. The first cargo was such a suc-
cess that others followed, and no complaint was heard that the bar-
gain was regretted in any direction.

A plant that could fasten such a habit upon mankind, whether
civilized or uncivilized, within the short space of four hundred years,
and become known as well as cultivated in every portion of the earth,
must meet an essential but mysterious want of the human body and
mind. The origin of the word is, however, lost in obscurity. Un-
doubtedly it was derived from the islands or mainland of the Tropics,

TOPPING AND CUTTING.

Topping and cutting are tl -d in all tobacco fields to encourage the growth of larger leaves, to prevent the development of seed, and to
keep the it in tl n. Men and boys pass between the rows of plants removing the ‘‘suckers”’ at the top or cutting away the
imperfect leaves from any other place on the stalk.

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TOBACCO: THE AMERICAN INDIAN ’S GIFT TO CIVILIZATION. 55

and is purely an Indian name. In all languages except the English
the first vowel is a, but the o is popular and will always be retained by
those using the English language. The difference would seem insig-
nificant, but one who is not aware of it may at times be confused by
searching through various classifications under the wrong letter.

With the increasing use of tobacco in all its preparations, the cul-
ture of the plant has been established over wider and wider areas,
until now there is practically no country—civilized or uncivilized—
where it is not to some extent grown. Indigenous as it is to a tropi-
eal climate, the tobacco plant has, by the ingenuity of man, been com-
pelled to adapt itself to all ranges of temperature, so that it is found
at such wide extremes as the region of the equator and the snow-
covered valleys of Canada and Sweden. In this respect it resembles
the vine, which will thrive so long as it has sunshine for a few months
in summer, and suflicient moisture to nourish the rapidly growing
leaves.

Tobacco belongs to the nightshade—Solanacex—family, which em-
braces many of the best known domesticated plants and vegetables,
such as the Irish potato, the tomato, eggplant, red pepper, jimson
weed, and henbane. The genus Vicotiana has about 50 species, but
the great varieties, the Vicotiana tabacum and the Nicotiana rustica,
supply nearly all the tobacco of commerce. ‘There is a variety called
persica, but the Persian tobacco as we know it is but a modification
of the rustica. The species Vicotiana tabacum is more generally used
than the others in every part of the world. It grows from 2 to 8
feet in height, and has ovate, oblong or lanceolate leaves, alternately
attached to the stalk spirally; these leaves measure from 12 to 42
inches in length and 8 to 24 inches in width. The flowers are rose-
colored or white. In the first days of the use of tobacco each brand
was known more by the place of growth or origin than by any other
name, but to-day, although such well-established and even historical,
distributive titles as Virginia, Maryland, Carolina tobacco, etc., are
retained, many older terms like Trinidado, or Brazil, have been quite
forgotten. A better-understood designation is that of the character
or appearance of the article ready for consumption or preparation by
the trade. All varieties are distinguished from one another by the
form, color, size, and texture of their leaves; by their fragrance,
adaptability to soils and uses, and by varying aptitudes to secrete
gums and oily matter while ripening.

Tobacco is grown from the seeds and its cultivation does not differ
materially from that of the cabbage. The preparation of seed for
distribution to planters is an importent part of the industry, because
much depends upon the quality of seed used, and the appropriateness
of such seed for the particular soil and climate in which it is proposed

i

56 INTERNATIONAL BUREAU OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLICS.

to grow it. Tobacco seeds are small, and plenty of them are needed
to insure a good growth. Moreover, they react noticeably to in-
fluences of soil, producing a leaf that preserves a color traceable to

(Copyright by Underwood & Underwood.)
A TOBACCO FIELD
The tobacco field must be constantly watched from the day of sowing the seed or setting out the
young plants to the moment the leaf is carried into the curing house. The flowers and suckers
must be removed and the animal enemies of all kinds must be killed in some way. Sometimes

the cost of this eternal vigilance is a heavy item and the profits to the planter may be seriously
reduced by his efforts to bring to the manufacturer a high grade, uninjured leaf.

the coloring matter of the soil in which it grows. The plant is one
also that crosses readily, so that it may be easily modified to suit local
conditions, but at the same time it must be carefully guarded to pre-

TOBACCO: THE AMERICAN INDIAN’S GIFT TO CIVILIZATION. oT

vent accidental crossing. The cultivation of tobacco for its various
uses has received as careful attention as that of any agricultural
industry, and the Agricultural Departments of all governments have
given elaborate study to the question, as a scientific and practical
problem vitally concerning all farmers and producers of staple crops.
Each year the plant must be reared from the beginning, thus re-
sembling wheat and potatoes, and differing therefore from trees or the

THE TOBACCO WORM.

This is called horn worm or horn blower in different parts of the country and is the caterpillar of
alargesphinx moth. It eats the leaf of tobacco, tomato, and allied plants, including occasionally
the Irish potato. The worm is green. One, two, or even more crops of worms may develop ina
season. The long beak is really a tongue sheath through which the worm sucks the nectar of
flowers. Several methods of destroying this enemy are known and practiced.

vine. Cultivation in every detail has become a nicely technical pro-
cedure, every step being carefully controlled; after seeding, and, if
this is adopted, after transplanting, tobacco must be fertilized, and
there is no plant so susceptible to fertilization as tobacco. The de-
mand of any particular variety of plant for its natural nourishment
must be most exactly met, or poor results are apt to follow. Conse-
quently the chemistry of plant, soil, and fertilizer has become almost

65357—Bull. 1—09 3)

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58 INTERNATIONAL BUREAU OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLICS.

an exact science. More than half the States of the United States are
engaged in the production of the leaf, and throughout the Union new
areas are brought into bearimg, because analysis has shown that soil,
seed, and food can be so combined as to produce a commercially
profitable article. Agriculture experiment stations the world over
are showing how to go to work to get a good crop, and the old fear,
ending in real disaster in Virginia many years ago, that the soil
would become exhausted and barren, is no longer impending over the
modern farmer who studies his occupation intelligently. Perique
tobacco, produced in a small area of Louisiana, settled originally by

TOBACCO BED SHOWING AWNING FRAME,

A seed bed in which the tobacco plant is cultivated before it is transplanted. This method is

aes for delicate leaf grown from the seed and develops the resistant quality in the mature
the Acadians, is an exception, in that it will not grow elsewhere. It
demands the black soil of these bottoms for its peculiar flavor.
Searcely more than 50,000 pounds a year of Perique measure the
world’s crop.

Various expressions are used to denote the processes employed
in the different stages of. cultivation. Topping is the term im-
plying the removal of the seed head; this is done to divert the
vitality of the plant from its essentially physiologic function—the
perpetuation of the species—to the development of the leaf. Suckers
are thrown out at the place of topping, and these, too, must be removed

TOBACCO: THE AMERICAN INDIAN’S GIFT TO CIVILIZATION. 59

promptly. This applies as well to the method by which the strength
of the leaves is maintained by restricting their number. If seeds are
to be gathered certain plants must be set apart from others and these
cultivated with special reference to this purpose. When the leaf is
ripe it is harvested. The length of time between topping and harvest-
ing varies greatly, and experience is needed to decide on the proper
color and firmness at which to begin. Cutting or priming is the
term by which is understood the process of gathering the leaves for
curing. This is one of the most important steps in the cultivation
of tobacco. It must be done on a dry day, so that the leaf will be
clean, unspotted, and free from fungus. According to the habit of
the country or district the leaves are now placed in a basket or hung
on a board or wire, and allowed to wilt. Then it is cured. Curing
is, of course, the step which changes the product from a mere agri-
cultural to a purely commercial commodity. Tobacco must not be
permitted to sweat, which really means the growth of fungus, for if
fungus once starts in a warehouse, it is liable to spread throughout
all the stock; neither must it ferment too soon, for the result will be
the same, or lead to evils equally as disastrous. Proper fermenta-
tion is an art and must be controlled by an expert whose personal
judgment has been tested by long handling of tobacco in all stages.
The technical process is called pressing, but does not necessarily imply
that the leaves themselves are subjected to great pressure; they are
weighted down by themselves in a receptacle constructed for that
purpose, the change taking place now, due to action of enzymes rather
than to bacteria (as was once thought), being one of ripening, as it
were, through heat and moisture.

This fermentation process develops in the tobacco leaves the char-
acteristic qualities of the commercial article. Fermentation follows
immediately after curing when both are done by the grower, but
where the cured tobacco is bought up by manufacturers several
months may pass before it is subjected to the latter process. When
tobacco is ready for manufacture into its finished condition for con-
sumption, the amount of nicotin is relatively unimportant, and it
is certain that the excellence of the leaf and its adaptability are not
dependent upon it. If the prime object of tobacco culture were the
production of nicotin, as the prime object of raising sugar beets is
the production of sugar, then the amount of nicotin might be forced
by the use of nitrogenous fertilizers, but nicotin alone no more makes
a good tobacco than does alcohol alone make a good wine. The flavor
and aroma are much more important.

Classification of the leaves now takes place, although some selec-
tion has taken place in the earlier stages. A division popularized by
long use separates them according to their color into: Claro, light

a

60 INTERNATIONAL BUREAU OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLICS.

brown; Colorado claro, brownish yellow; Colorado, brown; Colo-
rado maduro, dark brown; Madurog dark. This has applied largely
to the wrappers, but Sumatra and other leaves are to-day more freely
employed for wrappers, and as fashion now admits that a good cigar
is something besides a wrapper, and that a good wrapper may possess
other qualities than color, adherence is not always given to the above

A BUNDLE OF ASSORTED TOBACCO LEAVES.
Tobacco leaves of uniform size and grade are carefully assorted by themselves and then tied in a bundle for ease of handling.

classification. This whole question is one decided ultimately by the
manufacturer and the consumer, the latter exercising his taste, the
former his judgment. Taste takes the direction of strength, aroma,
moisture or dryness, and appearance of the finished article, whether
cigar or cigarette; judgment is necessary on the part of the manu-
facturer in deciding not only these points, but also the questions of

TOBACCO: THE AMERICAN INDIAN’S GIFT TO CIVILIZATION. 61

quality, and serviceability for filler, binder, and wrapper; both taste
and judgment unite in demanding that a tobacco when used for smok-
ing purposes must have a good burn. Burning quality is the most
important requirement for a first-class smoking tobacco.

Variation in burning qualities must be sought in differences in
chemical composition, which, as has been said, is greatly influenced
by the character of the soil, the climate, the season, and the kind of
fertilizer used. Moreover, there is reason to believe that certain
strains of tobacco possess the power of appropriating from the soil
those constituents conducive to a good burn, while other closely re-
lated types under the same conditions are lacking this power. In ad-
dition to the growing of tobacco, the curing and fermentation of the
leaf are important factors in developing a good burn. This is a com-
prehensive term, including such elements as fire-holding capacity,

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evenness of burn, and character of the ash. The fire-holding capacity
refers to the length of time the tobacco will keep alight; but it should
burn evenly, and have no great tendency to coal in advance of the
burning area. In some cases defects are due to injudicious combina-
tions of filler, binder, and wrapper. In the best smoking tobacco the
ash should be a uniform gray or white, and show a decided cohesive-
ness. Good tobacco will not burn with a flame, but will continue to
glow almost indefinitely when once it is lighted. The “ burn,” the de-
ciding factor in tobaccos, has had an immense amount of chemical
study devoted to it for more than fifty years, but as yet no one has
been able to offer a satisfactory explanation of the conduct of different
kinds of tobacco as regards their burning qualities. One fact is notice-
able, however, in comparing the composition of the tobacco plant with

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TOBACCO: THE AMERICAN INDIAN’S GIFT TO CIVILIZATION. 63

that of other agricultural crops; it has a remarkably high content of
mineral matter, commonly called the ash. On the average this ash
is well above 15 per cent of the total weight of the dry leaf, and a
distinct relation is demonstrable between the mineral constituents of
the ash and its good or poor burning qualities. Two undisputed facts
have resulted from innumerable studies made in this regard, and
these are that chlorin injures the fire-holding capacity of the leaf,
while potash favors this property; these facts, however, are insufli-
cient in themselves to explain fully the burning qualities of different
samples of tobacco. Yet the ultimate analysis indicates that potash
salts, in due combination with calcium and magnesium, produce the
best ash and give that desired burn which characterizes the highest
priced leaf in the tobacco trade.

— —

Shot nap roOral WORE S TOnRAGCEO GCrOr THE

FOLLOWING PROPORTIONS ARE PRODUCED BY PAN-AMERICA
PERCENT (EXCLUSIVE OF CANADA)
UNITED STATES | 28.75

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i aay
ARGENTINE REPOBLIC a
MEXICO @
PARAGUAY
DOMINICANREPUBLIC
COLOMBIA
VENEZUELA
CHILE
oS) S ie
sy Ny R

TOTAL 38.85%

When the leaf has been delivered to the manufacturer it is con-
verted into cigars, cigarettes, pipe, chewing and smoking tobacco.
Smoking and chewing were the aboriginal methods by which native
Americans consoled and stimulated, or at times physicked them-
selves with the plant. A crude pipe from which smoke was drawn
up into the nostrils was the implement first seen by the Spaniards.
On the mainland, especially in what is now the United States, a pipe
on present day lines was used, and had great symbolic significance
at councils of peace or war. Within the Tropics—in Mexico and
Central America—the dried leaf was rolled upon itself to form the
prototype of the modern cigar, and in other places corn husks were
the containers, somewhat larger than the shuck cigarette smoked

a

64 INTERNATIONAL BUREAU OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLICS.

so commonly by Mexicans, Central Americans, and Brazilians. The
pipe was the vehicle adopted by the English, and all the old prints
illustrating smoking in early days show only the pipe in the mouths
or hands of the devotees of tobacco. Chewing is undoubtedly a
habit inherited from the time when the medicinal effect was con-
sidered of immense value in the use of tobacco, for its stimulant quali-
ties were held by the Indians to follow a small dose, or to be a desired
result of the immediate prostration produced by a larger quantity.
As Europeans found that effects were thus obtained, tobacco in
some preparation for mastication was popularized for use by those
who could not get a pipe or cigar whenever it was desired. Snuff
taking was discovered among the Brazilian Indians, and they were

PRODUCETION OCF TOBACCO
FOR ONE YEAR

North America

} $reluding
Gente’ America Om ba
andthe other Weat Anndies

125.000.0000 LBS. 25.000.000LBS. Z2000,000LBS.

its best fabricators. Their taste in this matter was as pure as that
of the fashionable world of the East, and the snuff they made has
never been surpassed nor their apparatus for making it. This habit
was introduced into Europe by the Portuguese, and popularized in
France and the north by Carnertne pe Mepict. Ladies took snuff,
and probably ladies occasionally smoked, but practically no mention
is made of women smoking, and as a general habit women seem to
have resorted to it very sparingly. The ungallant rumor current
among many that the ladies of Latin America quite as commonly
as the men are seen with cigar or cigarette between their lips is
unfounded and unwarranted. Women of the peon class are met
with pipe or cigarette as a companion; in the public places of the

Hits eA

A CURING HOUSE.

This building is to-day constructed on modern principles,

After the tobacco leaves are picked they are transported into the barn or curing house.
and is intended to offer the most advantageous arrangement for pressing and fermenting the leaf ready for the manutacturer,

7

66 INTERNATIONAL BUREAU OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLICS.

haut ton, as in similar resorts of the Anglo-Saxon, it may be the
fashion for ladies to join in the trick of smoking, but the more
acquainted one becomes with the intimate social life of Latin Amer-
ica, the more is one astonished that credence could ever have been
given to the fiction that women here habitually indulged in tobacco.

The physiologic effects of tobacco have been discussed ever since
it was first used by civilized man. The Indians knew the symptoms
it caused, but were satisfied to ascribe them to the mysterious power
influencing all life about them and questioned no further. But the
attacks upon the habitual consumption of the prepared leaf have

TOBACCO CURING HOUSE.

Within the curing house several processes are carried on before the tobacco is ready for the manu-
facturer. The leaves are resorted now tograde them as to quality, and they must be delicately
handled to prevent any injury that might reduce the grade to which any leaf originally be-
longed. Only hand labor can be used for this purpose and decided skill is required.

had practically no restraining force, and there is no gauge of civili-
zation so generally applicable throughout the world as that of the
consumption of tobacco. A substantial agreement has to-day been
reached among scientists that tobacco—this does not mean the alka-
loid nicotin—is not the poison it was once supposed to be. In fact,
tobacco leaf can be grown and cured with an almost imperceptible
proportion of nicotin, and this meets the requirements of the con-
sumers’ taste even better than a tobacco strong in nicotin. It is
therefore the aroma in the smoke, and the essential oils in the leaf,
which perpetuate the habit and stimulate the intellectual desire

i

68 INTERNATIONAL BUREAU OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLICS.

to enjoy the narcotic effects resulting from the properly prepared
article. Raw tobaccos are strong, but they are not liked; on the
other hand, delicately cured tobaccos bring the highest price and
enjoy the longest reputation. This indicates that the effect sought
is altogether on the mind and imagination and not at all upon the
body. The use of tobacco is therefore differentiated at once from
the habitual use of any other drug. It has no demonstrable—that is,
no organic effect upon the body. It does irritate the heart and upset
the digestive organs if taken too often or without judgment, but
this effect 1s altogether functional and disappears as soon as the
habit is discontinued. That form of blindness called tobacco

A READER IN A CIGAR FACTORY IN CUBA.

Every large cigar factory employs a professional reader, who reads from books or newspapers
selected by the workers, to hold their attention on the work and prevent conversation or
centesily located in the som, wltere oll may Hearn (2 a |

amblyopia comes from the almost constant use of the cigar or from
the roughest kinds of tobacco smoked in a pipe. The consequences
here may be permanent and disastrous, but immediate attention to
the early symptoms will restore the eyesight unimpaired. Tobacco
seems not to weaken the moral fiber of the one who uses it, and there
is need only of a firm effort of will to relinquish the habit, if the
individual so desires; in these respects it is essentially superior to
all other drugs. Another argument in its favor is that the narcotic
or stimulant effect of tobacco seems to be satisfied within itself;
other drugs arouse a craving from a still more violent excitant, but
the probability is that if mankind were deprived of tobacco his

TOBACCO: THE AMERICAN INDIAN ’§ GIFT TO CIVILIZATION. 69

physique would suffer by indulgence in other drugs infinitely more
powerful and pernicious.

MUU

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(Photo by Underwood & Underwood.)

A CIGARETTE FACTORY.

Cigarettes are to-day made largely by machinery, which has to a great extent displaced the hand
labor, once the universal rule in factories. Machines are even made tc place the cigarettes in
the box ready for the consumer, but the employment of women for this purpose is still custom-
ary in the older centers of the trade. This is altogether piecework, and women become mar-
velously expert in their occupation.
Fr aT . . . . . . .
The tobacco plant, like all living things, has its parasites, but it

has no enemies peculiar to itself; it suffers, therefore, only from

a

70 INTERNATIONAL BUREAU OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLICS.

attacks by insects that could thrive on other plants equally well.
From the time the seed is sown until the leaf reaches the consumer
there is danger from some enemy. The flea bug or flea beetle, the
tobacco worm or hornblower, the bud worm, and a host more, feed
on the growing leaf. Other insects like the cigarette beetle are in-
jurious to cured tobacco, and feed on all preparations made from it;
they hatch in factories and warehouses. For all these there are
fortunately successful remedies, destructive to the insects but not
harmful to the tobacco.

Every Republic represented in the International Union of American
Republics is a grower of tobacco. Every country has a large com-
merce in the leaf and the manufactured article; every Government
draws an important part of its revenue from the tobacco trade going
on within or across its borders. Tobacco is used by a greater number
of people and among more nations than any other cultivated product
of the earth, and it is, with the exception of tea, the most highly
taxed substance in the world. In 1907 the United States derived
$78,000,000 from the internal-revenue and customs receipts on this
article, and other Governments profit likewise: The inhabitants of
every country have their own fashion of smoking and of preparing
the leaf for consumption. Machine labor is displacing hand labor,
and therefore the varying shapes of cigars or cigarettes once char-
acteristic of any country are gradually yielding to a more uniform
product, but the tobacco itself is growing superior year by year and
the smoker may rest content that wherever he goes he will find an
excellent tobacco from the local fields.

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