The finest tobacco, however, is made into rolls, which from their shape are called carrots. The leaves are placed together by large handfuls, and wound very tightly round by strips of fibrous wood or strong grass, at a time when the air is somewhat moist ; they partially consolidate, and require only to be rasped to make the finest and most genuine snuff.
The refuse stems of the tobacco are sometimes burned ; but it is best to let them rot in the ground, where they are converted into good manure for the next crop. From the high state of cultivation of the land, it is left very rich for any other crop after the tobacco ; but as this is quite a garden cultivation, the tobacco recurs very soon on the same ground ; the abundant manuring and deep trenching prevent any bid effects from this frequent recurrence.
Manufacturc.—Tobacco is packed in hogsheads for shipment : it is done with the greatest care, each bundle being laid separately. They are ranged side by aide, and the direction of the points of the leaves Is reversed with every alternate row. When the cask is about one-quarter filled, the tobacco is compressed by a powerful lever-press, which reduces the thickness of the layer from about twelve inches to three; and the pressure is continued several hours, that the tobacco may become so consolidated as not to spring up again when it is removed. In this way the cask is filled, by successive stages, until it contains a mass of tobacco-leaves so dense and compact, that a hogshead 48 inches in length, and 30 or 32 inches in diameter, will contain 1000 lbs. weight.
Upon the arrival of the tobacco in this country it is conveyed to bonding-warehouses. Those of the metropolis, which are of immense extent, are situated chiefly at the London Docks, where every cask is opened to examine its contents, and to remove any tobacco which may have been injured in the passage. This arrangement is due to the operation of the high import-duty, which renders it better for the owner to sacrifice tobacco that may have become impaired in value than to pay the duty upon it. For the purpose of examination, the head of the hogshead is knocked out, some of the staves aro loosened, and the hogshead is taken completely off from the tobacco. If it be found that, from defective packing, from the action of sea-water, or from auy other cause, part of the surface has become so injured as not to bo worth preserving, such part is removed, with large powerful cutting instruments, by small quantities at a time. This requires considerable power, owing to the intense compression of the tobacco, especially upon the cylindrical aides of the mass, where the cutters act across the direction of the stalks and leaves. The damaged tobacco thus removed is consumed in a furnace on the premises. The remainder of the mass is accurately weighed, and then returned into the hogshead.
The manufacture of the tobacco-leaves into the numerous varieties of tobacco for smoking in pipes—consisting of the leaf cut up into shreds or filaments, and uaully divested of the stalk ; into cigars, which are bundles of the tobacco-leaf rolled compactly together into a con venient form for smoking ; and into snuff, which consists partly of the stalks of the leaves, and partly of the leaves themselves, cut and ground into the state of powder—is usually conducted by three distinct classes of traders.
The first operation performed upon a hogshead of tobacco, after it has been removed to the manufactory and opened, is the digging out of the solid tobacco with iron instruments. The pieces thus detached are then sprinkled with water, which facilitates the separation of the small bundles from each other, and also of the leaves composing each bundle. If the tobacco be of the kind called hand-work,—that is to say, with the stalks remaining attached to the leaves,—it must now be stripped, unless indeed it be required for the production of a kind of tobacco called bird's-eye, which contains a portion of stalk as well as leaf. The removal of the stalks is usually effected in England by women or boys, who fold the leaf along the middle, and, by means of a small instrument, separate the stalks from the leaves, and lay them aside in different heaps. To prepare them for being cut into shreds or Momenta, the leaves are pressed together in large numbers in the form of a cake, during which operation they are occasionally moistened, not only to enable them to cake together the more readily, but also in order to improve the subsequent flavour of the tobacco. The details of the machinery employed for compressing and cutting the tobacco vary in different establishments. Originally the cutting apparatus con sisted simply of a long knife worked by hand. Hand-engines were then introduced, and such are still partially used, in which the knife is moved by a train of machinery, which also shifts the cake of tobacco between each cut, so as to make it ready for the ,next. This kind of cutting-engine is turned by a winch-handle, and the motion is regulated by a 11y-wheel. Horses have been applied to a similar machine ; and, lastly, steam-power has been brought to the aid of the manufacturer, leaving the attendance of men necessary only to place the cake in the engine, to attend to it while at work, and to remove the cut tobacco. Generally speaking, all of these machines act upon the same principle. The cake of leaves is laid upon an iron bed, which is susceptible of a slow progressive moden, and another part of the mechanism gives motion to the knife. The depth of the cake is about two inches ; the thickness of the film taken off by each stroke, and consequently the fineness or coarseness of the filaments of tobacco, is regulated by alterations in a train of cog-wheels.