Tobacco to be used for cigars must not only be of good flavor, but must burn freely, without which it has no real value for this purpose. Non-burning tobaccos cannot be used, and are either employed in the manufacture of snuff or for cutting.
Of the many kinds of tobacco of both the Old and New World, doubtless the most curious of all is that kind known as
DWARF TOBACCO.
Mexican Dwarf Tobacco.
This plant is a native of Mexico, and was discovered by Houston, who found it growing near Vera Cruz. This is probably the smallest kind of tobacco known. The plant grows to the height of about eighteen inches, the leaves growing tufts at the base of the plant. Some have supposed this tobacco to be what is known as Deer Tongue, which is used for flavoring, but it is quite probable that it is entirely different. The leaf is small and light green, and it is quite a showy plant when in blossom. As a curiosity it can hardly fail to attract attention from all those acquainted and interested in tobacco, but will hardly admit of cultivation, on account of the absence of leaves, with the exception of the few growing near the ground. Of all the tobaccos used for the manufacture of cigars, none have obtained an equal reputation (simply as a cigar wrapper) with the famous and much sought for variety known as
CONNECTICUT SEED LEAF,
which in all respects towers far above the seed products of the other states. The varieties cultivated in the United States and known as "seed leaf" tobaccos, are grown in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin. All of the seed leaf of these states is used exclusively in the manufacture of cigars. Connecticut seed leaf is justly celebrated as the finest known for cigar wrappers, from the superiority of its color and texture, and the good burning quality of the leaf. The plant grows to the height of about five feet, with leaves from two and one half to three feet in length and from fifteen to twenty inches broad, fitted preëminently by their large size for wrappers, which are obtained at such a distance from the stem of the leaf as to be free from large veins.
Connecticut seed leaf tobacco in color, is either dark or light cinnamon, two of the most fashionable colors to be found in American tobaccos. The plant is strong and vigorous, ripening in a few weeks, and when properly cultivated attaining a very large size. There are two principal varieties of Connecticut seed leaf, viz.—broad and narrow leaf: of these two, the broad leaf is considered the finest, cutting up to better advantage and ripening and curing fully as well. Connecticut seed leaf attains its finest form and perfection of leaf in the rich meadows of the Connecticut Valley, where it has been cultivated to a greater or less extent for nearly half a century.