SNUFF MANUFACTURE. Snuff is made from the tobacco stalk alone, from the leaf alone, and from the stalk and leaf mixed, ac cording to the kind to be produced. The purest kind of snuff is that which is known by the name of Scotch ; it is either made en tirely of stalks, or of stalks mixed with a very small proportion of leaf. There are many kinds of snuff called high.dried, such as Welch and Lundyfoot (the latter being named after a celebrated maker); these owe their qualities chiefly to the circumstance that they are dried so much as to acquire a slight flavour of scorching. The snuff called rappee is made chiefly from leaf, to which is added the smalls or broken fibre of tobacco, which are too small to be smoked conveniently in a pipe. The dark colour is principally produced by wetting the powdered tobacco in a box, and allowing it to remain a considerable time, turned occa sionally with a shovel; it undergoes a slight fermentation, the degree of which _gives rise to the distinction between brown and black rappee.
The original quality of the leaf is as much attended to as the subsequent processes. Scotch snuff is made from the stalks of light dry leaves ; whereas rappee and the darker snuffs are made from the darker and ranker leaves. A process of scenting has great influ ence also on the flavour of the snuff; since the manufacturer can introduce any kind of perfume which may please his customers.. Thus prince's mixture, and many snuffs of higher price, owe no small part of their flavour to the kinds of scent introduced.
A curious example of division of labour is presented by the Snuff Manufacture. The maker does not grind his own snuff, although he may do all else that pertains to the mann facture. Nearly all the snuff made in London is ground in and near Mitcham, by the aid of the water power furnished by the river Wandle. Tho explanation seems to be this—that no manufacturer makes enough snuff to keep a snuff mill going; but that the mill owner, by grinding for many manufacturers, can afford to do it at a price which renders it prudent for them to adopt this system. The mills are provided with two kinds of grinding machines ; in one of these a vertical stone rolls in a circle over the surface of a horizontal stone, and grinds the snuff between them : in the other there is a kind of large pestle and mortar, in which the pestle has a rolling motion given to it instead of a series of blows. The pro prietor sends the snuff to the mill after a certain stage of preparation ; and after it is returned from the mill in a ground state, it undergoes certain finishing operations. Many of the London manufacturers have small mills on their own establishments, for grinding small quantities of snuff, or for passing through any particular process the various kinds of fancy snuff; but the main bulk of the snuff is ground under the arrangements just described.