New Leaf

The cigar industry had news for the shade of Vice President Thomas ("What this country needs . . .") Marshall. Thanks to a new process, an improved 5-c- cigar was on sale across the U.S. After nearly a century, tobacco makers have found a way to turn damaged leaves and leftovers into a synthetic leaf that is milder and cheaper than natural tobacco.

The synthetic leaf, called HTL (for "homogenized tobacco leaf," was first developed by General Cigar Co., fourth biggest U.S. cigar maker. Now in use in General Cigar's bestselling nickel brands, Robert Burns Cigarillos and William Penn cigars, HTL is rapidly finding its way into more expensive cigars. Virtually every other U.S. cigar and cigarette maker is either experimenting with "reconstituted" tobacco or actually using it. The new process is not only stirring the biggest technical shake-up in the industry since cigarettes; it has already greatly altered the market for raw tobacco, U.S. farmers' sixth most valuable cash crop. Predicts Nu-Way Tobacco Co.'s Jean Shepard Jr., who is making the binder for about 15 cigar makers: "Inside of two years, there won't be a cigar maker in the U.S. who doesn't use it." "

Fantastic Acceptance." General Cigar claims "fantastic consumer acceptance" for HTL, which is used in place of conventional "binder," the layer of tobacco (12% of the cigar) that is sandwiched be tween inside "filler" and outer "wrapper." General has already licensed its process to other U.S. and foreign cigar makers, many of whom expect HTL to cut the cost of 10-c- cigars by 40-c- per 100. American Machine & Foundry Co. has developed another process for homogenized tobacco binder, also has patents on machines to turn out man-made leaf, which cigarette makers shred for filler. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (Camels, Winstons) recently disclosed that it had been using yet another reconstituting process "for a number of years."

The major advantage of homogenization is that scraps and stems (up to 30% of the leaf) that are now discarded can be pulverized, mixed with a cellulose adhesive and squeezed out in continuous rolls. For both cigar and cigarette makers, man-made leaf means a big cut in the cost of handling, grading and curing tobacco. Cigar makers who have switched to HTL binder can use imperfect broad-leaf (costing only 30-c- per lb. v. high-grade broadleaf costing up to 60-c-), find they need 50% less tobacco. Southern growers are complaining that use of man-made leaf in cigarettes will depress the market even further for the high-grade, high-priced "Bright leaf" they have cultivated for decades. Tobacco production, say New England farmers, may have to be slashed as much as 50%.

"Mild & Pleasant." By lowering prices and increasing demand, counter the manufacturers, HTL should eventually assure tobacco farmers a stable market. The new process will allow growers to sell scarred or storm-torn tobacco which is now unsalable; up to 40% of New England's cigar binder has to be scrapped each year because of weather damage and imperfections. Moreover, the market for high-grade cigarette tobacco has already been hurt by the rise of filter tips (more than 20% of all U.S. cigarette sales in 1955), which, say tobacco experts, generally contain less expensive tobaccos than non-filtered cigarettes. The industry also maintains that homogenized tobacco tastes better. After passing around HTL cigars, growers from Connecticut's Hartford County reported that they were "mild and pleasant."

Nevertheless, a special House-Senate subcommittee is conducting a full-scale investigation of HTL. Led by North Carolina's cigar-smoking, tobacco-chewing Senator W. Kerr Scott (who charged manufacturers with using "trade secrets as a Fifth Amendment"), the committee opened hearings last month, got testimony from a North Carolina botanist that he had found particles of a "dangerous" substance akin to glass fibers in an HTL cigar. But Research Chemist Walter G. Frankenburg, the General Cigar vice president who perfected the first homogenization process, testified that the suspect particles were probably silicate fibers other than glass, added to HTL cigar binder to make it burn more evenly.

"Unfit for Humans." While General Cigar speaks proudly of HTL, most cigarette makers have kept mum on experiments. They are fearful of alarming the public, which has been nurtured on the notion that tobacco should be "pure" and "fine." A rash of anti-HTL bills have already been introduced in state legislatures and Congress; e.g., Kentucky's Representative Frank Chelf has written a bill that would ban HTL products as unfit for human consumption. Nevertheless, most tobacco men expect that synthetic leaf will inevitably be used throughout the industry. As one cigar smoker cracked last week: "HTL/MFT."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.