CIGAR, originally "segar," from the Spanish cigar-shaped beetle "cicada," originated in Cuba long before advent of Colum bus and the white men. Indians crudely rolled it with wrapper and inside filler only, from native West Indian tobacco. Spread of the industry to America and to Europe occurred in the i8th and i 9th centuries. Introduced in the United States in 1762 by General Israel Putnam, after the British campaign to Cuba, it was 1810 before cigars were made in homes near Suffield, Connecticut. Previously, however, some "tobies" or stogies, long, thin cigars, named for pioneer Conestoga wagons, were made by Pennsylvania Dutch in 1785 in York county. New Orleans, La., too, made "Spanish" cigars in 1800, but, as this was not then American terri tory, the cigars were classified as foreign or "imported," like the Cuban. Cigars sold for one, two, or three cents each, although the foreign cigars brought a penny or two more. No regularity of shape or size then prevailed, and branding and boxing were un known. The cigars were simply bundled in Loo's or loo's, and packed in ordinary barrels or chests.
It is extremely important, in hand-made cigars, that right hand wrappers are rolled that way for the best appearance and burn, while lefts must likewise be rolled according to direction of the veins in the tobacco, after the mid-stem, or stalk, is stripped or removed from the leaf. All the tobacco in a genuine Cuban cigar is grown upon the island—Vuelta Abajo district for the wrapper, Remedios or Partido districts for the filler.
Elsewhere, however, many local types of cigar leaf tobacco are used. In the United States, it is customary to make hand-made cigars (and some machine-made cigars, also) with Cuban, Puerto Rican, Ohio, or Pennsylvania filler, a Wisconsin or Connecticut binder (to hold the filler together in American-made cigars), and a Cuban, Connecticut shade-grown (cultivated under cheese-cloth, to neutralize sun and moisture, as in the tropics), Connecticut broadleaf, or Sumatra wrapper from the Dutch East Indies. Roll ing the bunches by hand requires an apprenticeship and practice of several years. Unless the cigars are perfect in appearance and in draught they are useless. Ceaseless inspection provides that only the best in production are used for the finest sizes, selling at retail from ten cents to a dollar or more per cigar. In sealing the mouth-end, or head of the cigar, gum tragacanth is used. This is a tasteless adhesive found in Persia, but it is sometimes flavoured, slightly, with powdered licorice.
In making mould, or shaped, cigars, long, hard-wooden moulds, originally made in 187o at Osnerbrueck, Germany, are used by the "German" or semi-hand-made method for lower cost cigars in the smaller factories catering to the five cent, or nickel, trade. These matrixes hold twenty bunches of hand prepared filler binder. Ten moulds are prescribed for each operator. The cigars are made in innumerable shapes and sizes, to conform to numerous brand demands. Five moulds are at hand at each workman's bench, five more in the presses, waiting for the rolling of the wrapper. Working an average of eight hours daily, each cigar maker should produce from 15o hand to 30o mould cigars. In team work, a trio of cigarmakers are employed. Two men or girls wrap, while the other "breaks" the bunches, as it requires twice the time to wrap as it does to bunch in this manner. These teams make i,000 cigars each day.
In 1919 the first cigar machine made its appearance at Newark, N. J. It required two years to build it, but it has now reached perfection. Four women operatives at each machine make 8 cigars a minute. This is at the rate of 4,000 daily, in any size or shape, according to the machine matrix. One of the operatives feeds the filler into the hopper of the machine, another the binder, which is automatically cut to the desired size, as is the wrapper, which is also cut, rolled, and pasted.
Boxes of metal, wood, glass, paper are used for the cigars. Selectors and packers, spreading the cigars on long tables, arrange them according to perfection and colour of wrappers. To accom modate the eye to the top row of each box of flat 4-row so's, 1 oo's, or however the cigars may be packed, the packer selects colours of claro (light yellow), colorado claro (light red or brown), Colorado (brown), colorado maduro (dark brown), maduro (deep brown), oscuro (almost black). Demand of smokers was formerly for the darker colours, and expert opinion still believes the dark wrappers to be the ripest. But modem practice makes the claro shades the more popular, although the shade of the wrapper, naturally, has nothing at all to do with the strength of the cigar. In fact, the so-called lighter colours may actually be more bitter, but the thin, elastic sheen of wrapper, especially of shade-grown Connecticut and Sumatra, actually have no strength at all, as they are neutral leaf, used for that purpose, more for beauty and service than for smoking values. As the smoking demand is for pleasing aroma and delicacy of the blend, accompanied by even burn and white ash, these factors are invariably paramount in the production of the popular brands of cigars. Millions of dollars are expended in the perfection of the blend of cigars, then in ad vertising them to the public. Spanish manufacturers, in Cuba, originated a multitude of brands and shapes and sizes, all under Spanish titles. Many of these titles are still used throughout the world. Imitation of the actual Cuban trade-marks is forbidden in many countries, yet similarity of names remains prevalent. Cuban cigarmakers are employed in several American cities, and their nomenclature has followed them. Original straight shapes, such as Londres or London, blunt on the tuck or lighting end, remain popular. Perfecto, pointed on both ends ; concha, small perfecto ; puritano, adaptation of the perfecto; panetela, long and thin; breva, short and stubby; corona, thick and straight; imperiale, long perfecto ; and numerous others are all founded on Spanish language procedure.
Surprisingly, however, production has not increased in the United States. From official records of the Internal Revenue Bu reau, when the first taxation was imposed July 1, 1862, for the fiscal year ending 1863, some 199,288,284 cigars paid the tax. In 1870 the production and importations increased to the first billion mark-1,139,470,774. In 1879 it was 2,019,246,764. In 1882 the figures were 3,040,975,395; while in 1890 they stood at 4,087,889, 983. In 1900, there were manufactured and imported 5,316,273 561, and in 1902 the figures were 6,103,567,265. Four years later, in 1906, the total was 7,174,805,223, and the all-time high was in 1920, at 8,266,770,593, for all American production, imports included.
But since that time, manufacture and importation have de clined. In 1921 the total was only 6,726,095,483, and in 1930 it was 5,893,890,418; in 1932, 4,382,722,918; 1936 showed a slight increase, 5,172,278,612. For 1938 the total was Notwithstanding the speed-up of production it is to be noted that the total output and sales have decreased. Too, the number of cigar factories in the United States has decreased from 27,000 to less than 5,000 making cigars alone. Larger factories, employing greater numbers of employees, are supplanting the smaller fac tories ("buck-eyes") which once produced the bulk of the brands throughout the nation. A bare dozen large organizations account for fully 85% of the total American production, which is 94% in Class A cigars, or those sold at retail for five cents or less.
(R. R. TH.)