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A broad-leafed plant of the nightshade family, indigenous to North America, whose dried and cured leaves are often smoked in the form of a cigar or cigarette, or in a smoking pipe. Tobacco is also chewed, "dipped" (placed between the cheek and gum), and consumed as snuff.

Tobacco contains nicotine, a mild stimulant that is highly addictive. All of the mentioned means of consuming tobacco result in the absorbtion of nicotine in varying amounts into the user's bloodstream.

History

Native Americans smoked tobacco before Europeans arrived in America, and early European settlers America adopted the habit and brought it back to Europe with them, where it became hugely popular.

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 eighteenthh 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 inteneded to be dipped. It comes in two varieties -- "sweet" and "salty", and popular brands are Tube Rose and Levi Garret. Until the early 20th century, snuff dipping was popular in the United States among rural women, 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. Moist snuff is made from fire-cured kentucky burley tobacco, that is ground, sweetened, and aged by the factor. Prominant brands are Copenhagen, Skoal, and Kodiak. Moist snuff is always dipped.

Chewing Tobacco

Chewing the leaves of the tobacco plant is one of the oldest forms of consuming it. 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 alongside other tobacco intended for sale. Modern twist is occasionaly 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 ninteenth century leaves were pressed between large tin sheets. The resulting sheet of tobacco was cut into plugs. Like twist, consumers cut a piece off of the plug. Major brands are Day's Work, and Cannonball.

Scrap, or looseleaf chewing tobacco was originally the excess of plug manufacturing. It is sweetened like plug tobacco, but rather than pressing the leaves into a form, it is sold loose in bags. Looseleaf is by far the most popular form of chewing tobacco. Popular brands are Mail Pouch, Red Man, and Beechnut.

TODO:

• more biology of the plant - growing conditions, etc.
• medical - epidemiology of lung cancer, why it's carcinogenic, more on nicotine & addictiveness
• how is it cured/prepared for different uses?
• history - tobacco trade, triangular trade, role in development of the american south
• contemporary politics - anti-tobacco lawsuits & legislation
• find attribution for the snuff poem -- see John Graves's essay on snuff in From a Limestone Ledge
• history of varieties -- in US, colonial orinoco & sweet-scented, plus bright-leaf and white burley
• revise and rephrase