CHAPTER X

184

THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY AND SMOKING PIPES

Various kinds and sources of supply—Qualities due to climate, soil or other causes—Natural qualities determine destination—Strong kinds find favour in North America, mild in Europe—Cuba’s leaf richest in excellences desired by smokers—Cuba’s make-up the model for the rest of the tobacco producing world—The effect of the McKinley tariff on Cuban cigar manufacture—The highly prized and priced Havana legitimas—Small area over which the Havana plant is grown—Harvesting and curing operations in Florida—Packing of bales for exportation—Bonded warehousing accommodation and its regulations—Different kinds of cigars suited to different seasons and climates—Manila cheroots, their kinds and manufacture—Government monopoly and its removal—Illicit growth of the plant by mountaineers—Number of employés, their work and wages—Cheroots used in lieu of coin—Various kinds of tobacco offered to the consumer—Invisible life infests tobacco leaves—Tobacco culture prohibited in England except in Physic Gardens—Removed in 1886—Failure of English cultivation—Manufacture of cigars—Inequality of Customs duty—Historical view of tobacco pipes—Clay pipes—Meerschaum, its origin and manufacture—Briar-root and other materials used for pipes.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

TOBACCO PLANT _frontispiece_

_face p._

SIR WALTER RALEIGH ” 6

DEPARTURE OF COLUMBUS (_from a rare old painter_) ” 22

QUEEN ELIZABETH ” 132

A CHINESE PIPE 112

INDIAN PIPE—Heads found in Mound City, Ohio 113

A JAPANESE PIPE 129

DUC DE SULLY 153

EARLY SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY SMOKERS 173

ST NICOTINE

SYMPOSIUM

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