This chapter embraces the manufacture of cut, cake and roll tobacco, cigars, cigarettes, and snuff. It is impossible to indicate the precise form in which each kind of tobacco-leaf is manufactured for use; indeed, no well-defined line marks the qualifications of each sort, and the great art of the manufacturer is to combine the various growths in a manner to produce an article suited to the tastes of his customers, at a price suited to their pockets. But, in a general way, it may be said that Havana and Manilla are probably exclusively consumed in the form of cigars; Virginia is a favourite for cavendish, negrohead, and black twist, and is largely converted into returns, shag, and snuff; Kentucky, Missouri, and Ohio are used for cavendish, brown twist, bird’s-eye, returns, and shag; Dutch and German make the commonest cigars, k’naster, moist snuffs, and smoking-mixtures; Java and Japan are selected for light cigars, mixtures, and light moist shag; Latakia, Turkey, Paraguay, Brazil, China, and the remainder, are used up in cigarettes, mixtures, imitations, and substitutes. _Damping._—The tobacco-leaves are received by the manufacturer in all kinds of packages, from a hogshead to a seron (raw hide), and of all weights from 1 to 12 cwt. The first process they undergo is “damping,” which is necessary to overcome their brittleness, and admit of their manipulation without breaking. For this purpose, the bunches (“hands”) are separated, and the leaves are scattered loosely upon a portion of the floor of the factory, recessed to retain the moisture. A quantity of water, which has been accurately proportioned to the absorbing qualities of the leaf used, and to the weight present, is applied through a fine-rosed watering-pot, and the mass is left usually for about 24 hours, that damped on one morning being ready for working on the following morning. In England, water alone is admissible (by legislative enactment) for damping, except in special cases to be noted subsequently; but abroad, many “sauces” are in vogue, their chief ingredients being salt, sal ammoniac, and sugar.