Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) is a broad-leafed plant of the nightshade family, indigenous to North and South America, whose dried and cured leaves are often smoked (see tobacco smoking) in the form of a cigar or cigarette, or in a smoking pipe, or in a water pipe or a hookah. Tobacco is also chewed, "dipped" (placed between the cheek and gum), and consumed as finely powdered
snuff tobacco, which is sniffed into the nose. The word "tobacco" is an Anglicization of the Spanish word "tabaco", whose roots are unclear; it is thought to derive
from the Native American word "tabago," for a Y-shaped pipe used in
sniffing tobacco powder.
Tobacco contains nicotine, an organic alkaloid and powerful neurotoxin, particularly to insects. All means of consuming tobacco result in the absorption of nicotine in varying amounts into the user's bloodstream, and over time the development of a tolerance and
dependence. Absorption quantity, frequency, and speed seem to
have a direct relationship with how strong a dependence and tolerance, if any, might be created. A lethal dose of nicotine is contained in as little as one half of a cigar or three cigarettes; however,
only a fraction of the nicotine contained in these products is actually released into the smoke, and most clinically significant
cases of nicotine poisoning are the result of concentrated forms of the compound used as insecticides.
Major hazards of tobacco use, however, include carcinogenic compounds in
tobacco and tobacco smoke. Many jurisdictions have enacted smoking bans in an
effort to minimize possible damage to public health due to tobacco smoking.
History
Native Americans smoked tobacco before Europeans arrived in
America, and early European settlers in America adopted the habit and brought it back to Europe with them, where it became hugely popular.
Since the beginnings of colonial America, long before the creation of the United States, tobacco, almost entirely on its own, fueled the colonization in the future American South. The
notion that "America was built on tobacco" is quite accurate; and the initial colonial expansion, fueled by the desire to
increase tobacco production, caused the first colonial conflicts with Native Americans, and also soon led to the use of African slaves for cheap labor.
In 1609, John Rolfe arrived at the
Jamestown Settlement in Virginia. He was the first man to successfully raise tobacco at Jamestown. The tobacco raised in Virginia to that
time, Nicotiana Rustica, was not to the liking of the Europeans, but Rolfe had brought some seed for Nicotiana
Tabacum with him from Bermuda. Shortly after arriving, his first wife died, and
he married Pocahontas, a daughter of Chief Powhatan. Although most of the settlers wouldn't touch the tobacco crop, Rolfe was able to make his fortune
farming it. When he left for England with Pocahontas, he was wealthy. When Rolfe
returned to Jamestown following Pocahontas's death in England, he continued to improve the quality of tobacco. By 1620, 40,000
pounds of tobacco were shipped to England. By the time John Rolfe died in 1622, Jamestown
was thriving as a producer of tobacco and Jamestown's population would top 4,000. Tobacco led to the importation of the colony's
first black slaves as well as women from England in 1619.
The importation of tobacco into Europe was not without resistance and controversy, even in the 17th century. King James I of England (James VI of
Scotland) published a famous polemic
titled A Counterblaste to Tobacco in
1604. In his essay, the king denounced tobacco use as "[a] custome lothsome to the eye,
hatefull to the Nose, harmefull to the braine, dangerous to the Lungs, and in the blacke stinking fume thereof, neerest
resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that is bottomelesse." In that same year, an English statute was enacted that placed a heavy protective tariff on every
pound of tobacco brought into England.
Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, tobacco continued to be the "cash crop" of the Virginia Colony. Large tobacco
warehouses filled the areas near the wharfs of new thriving towns such as Richmond and Manchester at the
fall line (head of
navigation) on the James River, and Petersburg on the Appomattox River.
Until 1883, tobacco excise tax accounted for one third of internal revenue collected by the United States government.
Culture
Sowing
Tobacco seeds are started very early in the year. The seeds are scattered onto the
surface of the soil, as their germination is activated by light. In colonial Virginia, seedbeds were fertilized with wood ash or animal
manure (frequently powdered horse manure).
Seedbeds were then covered with branches to protect the young plants from frost damage. These plants were left to grow until
around April.
In the nineteenth century, young plants came under
increasing attack from the flea beetle (epitrix cucumeris or
epitrix
pubescens), causing destruction of half the United States tobacco crop in 1876. In
the years afterward, many experiments were attempted and discussed to control
the flea beetle. By 1880 it was discovered that replacing the branches with a frame covered
by thin cloth would effectively protect plants from the beetle. This practice spread until it became ubiquitous in the 1890s.
Transplanting
After the plants have reached a certain height, they are transplanted into fields. This was originally done by making a
relatively large hole in the tilled earth with a tobacco peg, then placing the small plant in the hole. Various mechanical
tobacco planters were invented throughout the late 19th and early 20th century to automate this process, making a hole,
fertilizing it, and guiding a plant into the hole with one motion.
Topping and Suckering
Once the tobacco plants are growing well, they will begin to produce shoots from the joint of each leaf with the stalk. These
secondary shoots — known as "suckers" — are undesirable as they divert energy that could be directed into the leaves.
They are removed in a process known as "suckering" (sometimes spelled "succoring" in older writing). Generally this is done by
hand several times during the season. Recently anti-suckering compounds have come into use.
At a certain stage of maturity, the plant will produce a flower cluster from its tip, as well as the tips of any suckers that
remain on the plant. In order to divert more energy into the leaves, the plant is "topped" — the top is cut off.
Harvest
Tobacco is harvested in one of two ways. In the oldest method, the entire plant is harvested at once by cutting off the stalk
at the ground with a curved knife. In the nineteenth century, bright tobacco began to be harvested by pulling individual leaves
off the stalk as they ripened. The leaves ripen from the ground upwards, so a field of tobacco may go through several "pullings"
before the tobacco is entirely harvested, and the stalks may be turned into the soil.
Curing
Cut plants or pulled leaves are immediately transferred to tobacco barns, where they will be cured. Curing methods varies with
the type of tobacco grown, and tobacco barn design varies accordingly. Air-cured tobacco is hung in well-ventilated barns and
allowed to dry over a period of days. Fire-cured tobacco is hung in large barns where smoldering fires of hardwoods are kept
burning. Flue-cured tobacco was originally strung onto tobacco sticks, which were hung from tier-poles in large cubical barns
(Aus: kilns). These barns have flues which run from externally-fed fire boxes to the roof,
heat-curing the tobacco without exposing it to smoke.
Post-Cure Processing
After tobacco is cured, it is moved from the curing barn into a storage area for processing. If whole plants were cut, the
leaves are removed from the tobacco stalks in a process called stripping. For both cut and pulled tobacco, the leaves are then
sorted into different grades. In colonial times, the tobacco was then "prized" into hogsheads for transportation. In bright
tobacco regions, prizing was replaced by stacking wrapped "hands" into loose piles to be sold at auction. Today, most cured
tobacco is baled before sales under contract.
Types
Fire-cured
Fire-cured smoking tobacco is a robust variety of tobacco used as a condimental for pipe blends. It is cured by smoking over
gentle fires. In the United States, it is grown in the western part of Tennessee, Western Kentucky and in Virginia. Latakia is a produced from oriental varieties of N. tabacum. The leaves
are cured and smoked over smoldering fires of local hardwoods and aromatic shrubs in Cyprus and Syria. Latakia has a pronounced flavor and a very distinctive
aroma, and is used in the so-called Balkan and English-style pipe tobacco blends.
Fire-cured tobacco grown in Kentucky and Tennessee is used in some chewing tobaccos, moist snuff, some cigarettes and as a condiment leaf in pipe tobacco
blends. It has a rich, slightly floral taste, and adds body and aroma to the blend.
Brightleaf tobacco
Prior to the American Civil War, the tobacco grown in the US
was almost entirely fire-cured dark-leaf. This was planted in fertile lowlands, used a robust variety of leaf, and was fire cured
or air cured.
Sometime after the War of 1812, demand for a milder, lighter, more
aromatic tobacco arose. Ohio and Maryland
both innovated quite a bit with milder varieties of the tobacco plant. Farmers around the country experimented with different
curing processes. But the breakthrough didn't come until 1854.
It had been noticed for centuries that sandy, highland soil produced thinner, weaker plants. Abisha Slade, of Caswell County, North Carolina had a good
deal of infertile, sandy soil, and planted the new "gold-leaf" varieties on it. When Stephen, Abisha's slave, used charcoal
instead of wood to cure the crop, the first real "bright" tobacco was produced.
News spread through the area pretty quickly. The worthless sandy soil of the Appalachian piedmont was
suddenly profitable, and people rapidly developed flue-curing techniques, a more efficient way of smoke-free curing. By the
outbreak of the War, the town of Danville, Virginia actually
had developed a bright-leaf market for the surrounding area in Caswell County, North Carolina and Pittsylvania County, Virginia.
Danville was also the main railway head for Confederate soldiers going to the front. These brought bright tobacco with them from Danville
to the lines, traded it with each other and Union soldiers, and developed quite a taste for it. At the end of the war, the
soldiers went home and suddenly there was a national market for the local crop. Caswell and Pittsylvania counties were the only
two counties in the South that experienced an increase in total wealth after the war.
White burley
In 1864, George Webb of Brown County, Ohio planted Red Burley
seeds he had purchased, and found that a few of the seedlings had a whitish, sickly look. He transplanted them to the fields
anyway, where they grew into mature plants but retained their light color. The cured leaves had an exceedingly fine texture and
were exhibited as a curiosity at the market in Cincinnati. The
following year he planted ten acres (40,000 m˛) from seeds from those plants, which brought a premium at auction. The air-cured
leaf was found to be mild tasting and more absorbent than any other variety. White Burley, as it was later called, became
the main component in chewing tobacco, American blend pipe tobacco, and American-style cigarettes. The white part of the name is
seldom used today, since red burley, a dark air-cured variety of the mid-1800s, no longer exists.
Shade tobacco
It is not well known that the northern US state of Connecticut is also one
of the important tobacco-growing regions of the country. However, long before Europeans
arrived in the area, Native Americans harvested wild tobacco plants
that grew along the banks of the Connecticut River. Today, the
Connecticut River valley north of Hartford, Connecticut is known as Tobacco Valley, and the fields and drying sheds are visible to travelers on the road to and from Bradley Field, the major Connecticut
airport. The tobacco grown here is known as shade tobacco, and is used as outer
wrappers for some of the world's finest cigars.
Early Connecticut colonists acquired from the Native Americans the habit of
smoking tobacco in pipes and began cultivating the plant commercially, even though the Puritans referred to it as the "evil weed". The plant was outlawed in Connecticut in 1650, but in the 1800s as cigar smoking began to be popular,
tobacco farming became a major industry, employing farmers, laborers, local youths, southern African Americans, and migrant
workers.
Working conditions varied from pleasant summer work for students, to backbreaking exploitation of migrants. Each tobacco plant
yields only 18 leaves useful as cigar wrappers, and each leaf requires a great deal of individual manual attention after
harvesting, some of which must be carried out in the drying sheds, where the temperature exceeds 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
In 1921, Connecticut tobacco production peaked, at 31,000 acres under cultivation. Since then, the rise of cigarette smoking and the decline of cigar smoking has caused a corresponding decline in the demand for shade tobacco, reaching a
minimum in 1992 of 2,000 acres under cultivation. Since then, however, cigar smoking has
become more popular again, and in 1997 tobacco farming acreage had risen to 4,000 acres.
The industry has weathered some major catastrophes, including a devastating
hailstorm in 1929, and an epidemic of
brown spot fungus in
2000.
There is a Luddy/Taylor Connecticut Valley Tobacco Museum in Windsor, Connecticut.
Perique
In contrast, perhaps the most strongly-flavored of all tobaccos is the Perique, from Saint James Parish, Louisiana. When the Acadians made their way into this region in 1776, the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes were cultivating a variety of tobacco
with a distinctive flavor. A farmer called Pierre Chenet is credited with first turning this local tobacco into the Perique in
1824 through the technique of pressure-fermentation.
The tobacco plants are manually kept suckerless, and pruned to exactly 12 leaves, through their early growth. In late June,
when the leaves are a dark, rich green and the plants are 24-30 inches (600 to 750 mm) tall, the whole plant is harvested in the
late evening and hung to dry in a sideless curing barn. Once the leaves have partially dried, but while still supple (usually
less than 2 weeks in the barn), any remaining dirt is removed and the leaves are moistened with water and stemmed by hand. The
leaves are then rolled into "torquettes" of approximately 1 pound (450 g) and packed into hickory whiskey barrels. The tobacco is then kept under pressure using
oak blocks and massive screw jacks, forcing nearly all the air out of the still-moist leaves. Approximately once a month, the
pressure is released, and each of the torquettes is "worked" by hand to permit a little air back into the tobacco. After a year
of this treatment, the Perique is ready for consumption, although it may be kept fresh under pressure for many years. Extended
exposure to air degrades the particular character of the Perique. The finished tobacco is dark brown, nearly black, very moist
with a fruity, slightly vinegary aroma.
Considered the truffle of pipe tobaccos, the Perique is used as a component of many blended pipe tobaccos, but is too strong to be
smoked pure. At one time, the freshly moist Perique was also chewed, but none is now sold for this purpose. Less than 16 acres
(65,000 m˛) of this crop remain in cultivation, most by a single farmer called Percy Martin, in Grande Pointe, Louisiana. For
reasons unknown, the particular flavour and character of the Perique can only be acquired on a small triangle of Saint James
Parish, less than 3 by 10 miles (5 by 16 km). Although at its peak, Saint James Parish was producing around 20 tons of the
Perique a year, output is now only a few barrelsful.
While traditionally a pipe tobacco (and still available from some specialist tobacconists), the Perique may now also be found
in the Perique cigarettes of Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co., in an approximately 1 part to 5 blend with lighter tobaccos. A similar
tobacco, based on pressure-fermented Kentucky tobacco is available by the name
Acadian Green River Perique.
Tobacco products
Snuff
Some it chew,
Some it smoke,
Some it up the nose do poke!
Snuff is a generic term for fine-ground smokeless tobacco products. Originally the term referred only to dry snuff, a fine tan
dust popular mainly in the eighteenth century. This is often called "Scotch Snuff", a folk-etymology derivation of the scorching
process used to dry the cured tobacco by the factor.
European snuff is intended to be snorted up the nose, and is often scented or mentholated. American snuff is much stronger,
and is intended to be dipped. It comes in two varieties -- "sweet" and "salty", and popular brands are Tube Rose, Levi Garrett, Red Man. Until the early 20th century, snuff dipping
was popular in the United States among rural people, who would often use sweet barkless twigs to apply it to their gums.
The second, and more popular, variety of snuff is moist snuff. This is occasionally referred to as "snoose" derived from the Scandinavian word for snuff,
"snus". Like the word, the origins of moist snuff are Scandinavian, and the oldest American
brands indicate that by their names. American Moist snuff is made from dark fire-cured tobacco that is ground, sweetened, and
aged by the factor. Swedish snus is different in that it is made from steam-cured tobacco, rather than fire-cured, and its health
effects are markedly different, with studies showing dramatically lower rates of cancer and other tobacco-related health problems
than cigarettes, American "Chewing Tobacco", Indian Gutka or African varieties. Prominent North American brands are Copenhagen, Skoal, and Kodiak. Prominent Swedish brands are
Swedish Match, Ettan, and
Tre Ankare. American moist snuff tends
to be dipped.
Some modern smokeless tobacco brands, such as Kodiak, have an aggressive nicotine delivery. This is accomplished with a
higher dose of nicotine than cigarettes, a high pH level (which helps nicotine enter the blood
stream faster), and a high portion of unprotonated (free base) nicotine.
In the Scandinavian countries, moist snuff come either in loose powder form or powder packaged in small bags, suitable for
placing inside the upper lip. In the case of the unpackaged form, the snus will be baked and pressed into a small ball or ovoid
either by hand or by use of a special tool. Prepackaded snuff is therefore called "portion snuff", whereas the loose powder
variant is called "baking snuff".
Chewing tobacco
Chewing is one of the oldest ways of consuming tobacco leaves. Native Americans in both North and South America chewed the
leaves of the plant, frequently mixed with lime. Modern chewing tobacco is produced in three forms: twist, plug, and scrap.
Twist is the oldest form. One to three high-quality leaves are braided and twisted into a rope while green, and then are cured
in the same manner as other tobacco. Until recently this was done by farmers for their personal consumption in addition to other
tobacco intended for sale. Modern twist is occasionally lightly sweetened. It is still sold commercially, but rarely seen outside
of Appalachia. Popular brands are Mammoth Cave, Moore's Red Leaf, and Cumberland Gap. Users cut a piece off the twist and chew
it, expectorating.
Plug chewing tobacco is made by pressing together cured tobacco leaves in a sweet (often molasses-based) syrup. Originally this was done by hand, but since the second half of the 19th century leaves were pressed between large tin sheets. The resulting sheet of
tobacco is cut into plugs. Like twist, consumers cut a piece off of the plug to chew. Major brands are Day's Work and
Cannonball.
Scrap, or looseleaf chewing tobacco, was originally the excess of plug manufacturing. It's sweetened like plug tobacco, but
sold loose in bags rather than a plug. Looseleaf is by far the most popular form of chewing tobacco. Popular brands are Red Man,
Beechnut, and Mail Pouch. Looseleaf chewing tobacco can also be dipped.
During the peak of popularity of chewing tobacco in the Western United
States in the late 19th century, spittoons were a common device for users to
spit into.
Gutka
Gutka is a confection-like tobacco product
manufactured and used mainly in India. It contains sweeteners and flavorings and is marketed to children. It is used
by placing it between one's cheek and gums.
Books
- Breen, T. H. (1985). Tobacco Culture. Princeton Univerisity Press. ISBN 0-691-00596-6. Source on tobacco
culture in eighteenth-century Virginia pp. 46-55
- W.K. Collins and S.N. Hawks. "Principles of Flue-Cured Tobacco Production" 1st Edition, 1993
- Fuller, R. Reese (Spring 2003). Perique, the Native Crop. Louisiana Life.
- Graves, John. "Tobacco that is not Smoked" in From a Limestone Ledge (the sections on snuff and chewing tobacco)
ISBN 0394512383
- That history of the Universal Leaf corporation (info about role of Danville-Richmond railroad in spread of Bright
tobacco).
- Killebrew, J. B. and Myrick, Herbert (1909). Tobacco Leaf: Its Culture and Cure, Marketing and Manufacture. Orange
Judd Company. Source for flea beetle typology (p. 243)
- Poche, L. Aristee (2002). Perique tobacco: Mystery and history.
- Tilley, Nannie May. The Bright Tobacco Industry 1860-1929 ISBN 0405047282. Source on flea beetle
prevention (pp. 39-43), and history of flue-cured tobacco
External links
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