CIGAR (of uncertain etymology; it can not be connected with any West Indian speech, and the customary derivation from Sp. ciqarra, cicada, in allusion to a similarity of outline is generally denied by scholars; Sp. cigarro. Also incorrectly spelled segar), a short compact roll of tobacco leaf for smoking. This form was borrowed by the Spanish invaders from the Indians of Cuba. When the Spaniards found that tobacco would grow elsewhere, they trans planted it to their possessions in the Philippines and to other localities. The Manila cheroot is the common form in which tobacco is smoked in the Far East. This cheroot is a roll cut off squarely at both ends and is shorter than Ameri can cigars. Rolling tobacco into cigars was not generally practised in Virginia and be Carolinas for a long time after the settlement of those sections by the English, for there the Indians invariably smoked their tobacco in pipes, but finally the convenience and superior flavor these rolls possessed made their use quite common some years before the Declaration of Inde pendence of the American colonies. In Cuba, Mexico and Central America and, in fact, in all Spanish-speaking countries, the use of a pipe to this day is a rarity, the inevitable cigarro or cigarette ("little cigar") being found constantly in use.
The moist climate, the character of the soil and the peculiar preservative •qualities of the air make Cuba the true home of the perfect cigar. There are but half a dozen valleys, mostly in the western end of the island, in. the province of Pinar del Rio, where the finest cigar tobacco is grown and cured, the most important being the Vuelta Abajo district. In this section the soil is of volcanic origin. It is the color of chocolate, and of great depth. The fields are. carefully and scientifically fertilized from year to year to preserve the proper pro portion of chemical ingredients necessary to produce the finest tobacco. It has been truly said that the making of a cigar begins with the cultivation of the tobacco leaf. The flavor of the cigar depends essentially upon the harvesting of the leaf at exactly the proper moment. The finest quality of tobacco may be reduced to an inferior grade by gathering it while the juices are too green. Having been gathered, the Cuban tobacco leaves are hung in curing-houses, where they remain for seven weeks, during which time the color changes from the rich green of the growing plant to the peculiar shade of brown assumed by the specific variety under consideration. Having safely
passed this stage, the tobacco is "sweated* in piles for a day or two, and is then baled and placed in a storage warehouse where it under goes a fermentation process. It remains in this storage for from one to two years, accord ing to the grade of cigars in which it is to be used — the longer the storage, the finer the smoking qualities. Havana tobacco thus pre pared is of an even dark brown color, without spots or stains. The finest quality brings as high as $20 a pound. The excellence of the Havana cigar does not depend wholly on the quality of the tobacco, but is due in part to the skill of the Cuban cigar-maker who knows what blending of leaf will yield the choicest flavor. Perhaps the next best grade of cigar tobacco comes from Porto Rico. The removal of the duty on manufactured cigars from that island in 1903 flooded the United States with cigars from there, many of them very inferior. In order to avoid paying the high duties on Cuban-made cigars, the device was early tried of bringing the tobacco over to the small island of Key West, a part of the State of Florida, separated from Cuba by only an 80-mile-wide strait. It was thought that the climatic con ditions there would be so similar to those of Cuba that an equally fine cigar could be made there, while the importation of the tobacco in bulk cut down the duties very materially. The °Key West° cigar is much cheaper than the one made in Cuba, but the flavor, for some reason, is inferior. The manufacturers even brought cigar-makers from Cuba to Key West, so that so far as possible the product might be the same as the original, but in vain. It has been discovered by experts of the Department of Agrictilture that in Ohio and Texas are certain areas which possess a soil so similar to that of the cele brated Vuelta Abajo district of Cuba that it is possible to raise tobacco there that will equal the Cuban. Samples of the leaf grown there and submitted to dealers in New York and Philadelphia, who were not told where it came from, proved to be so similar to that of Cuba that it was pronounced pure Havana leaf of the best quality. The pioneer in the manufac ture of Key West cigars was Gen. J. H. Gregory, who gained his military title in the first war for Cuban independence, and was familiar with the internal resources of Cuba.