The shag varieties are the best. Drug crops and hops
It is generally accepted that shag - the same one that is considered almost one of the symbols of the Soviet soldier in the Great Patriotic War, the worker and the peasant - is simply one of the subspecies of the most common tobacco that arrived in the countries of Western Europe with Christopher Columbus. Not so.
In fact, shag is a plant that is “on its own.” That is, of course, it also belongs to the nightshade family, to which biologists rightly classify tobacco... Stop... And what kind of tobacco - if the number of its species exceeds seven dozen? Need details? Let's begin.
The plant, the products of which are processed into cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos, and poured into pipes and hookahs, is called real tobacco, in Latin - Nicotiana tabacum. Since the first tobacco crop, centrally exported from America specifically for the purpose of marketing to Europe, was grown in what was then not yet the state of Virginia, it began to be called Virginia.
Actually, this name stuck. Virginia tobacco itself is now divided into a mass of subspecies, which are determined not by biologists, but by “planters” - even in Russia there are almost a dozen such varieties.
How shag was made and how it is made
Just like tobacco. The leaves (only the soft part, without veins) are dried and crushed. All. True, even in imperial Russia there were entrepreneurs who mixed stalks of village tobacco and the same crushed veins into shag.
They have no taste, and the nicotine content is minimal. But from one, roughly speaking, bush of rural tobacco, a slightly larger finished product was obtained. Over time, the number of stems and veins began to approach 100%, until finally, just before the First World War, the government obliged manufacturers to warn about this on packaging.
The revolution deprived smokers of the supply of Virginia tobacco for a long time. But shag, that same unpretentious Nicotiana rustica, bloomed in lush colors in vegetable gardens and orchards.
And although its inflorescences are inconspicuous, and its growth - compared to real tobacco - is disappointing, the nicotine content in the leaves turned out to be the envy of the strongest subspecies of tobacco: as much as four percent.
Of course, there was no need to talk about the subtlety of the aroma of shag, but there were no resins, additives and other things that are hidden behind the laconic phrase “Resin content” on cigarette packs. Shag today is probably the purest tobacco, affordable and, no matter what doctors say, safe.
Today shag is still produced. Even to emphasize the continuity with those factories that supplied the country with it half a century or more ago, the packaging of modern shag is deliberately made in a sort of vintage style.
Tobacco and shag in everyday use
In Russia, it has long been believed that tobacco and shag are almost synonymous. Only shag is such a very coarse tobacco that comes exclusively in loose form, and besides, it strongly “tears the throat.”
And the tobacco is thinner, weaker. Shag is suitable for rolling cigarettes or as a last resort for stuffing tubes (and then only in exceptional cases), and tobacco is used for cigarettes and also for pipes.
In general, the difference between tobacco and shag in the everyday sense ends here; only a few touches remain to be added to the portrait of both. A close “relative” of shag is “samosad”, and, as the name implies, this is tobacco planted in one’s own garden.
But tobacco grown in Russia is of low quality, due to two main factors. The first is that tobacco is a heat-loving plant and is practically not grown north of the 55th parallel (approximately the Moscow-Chelyabinsk axis and further to the east), and the second, which is a consequence of the first, is the absence of a tobacco cultivation culture.
“Pipe” tobacco is a 100% imported product; usually has a fairly high quality and is often treated with flavorings.
Comparison
Having decided on the everyday meaning of the words “tobacco” and “shag,” let’s figure out whether there is a difference between them in the botanical sense. It turns out there is! In botany, tobacco is a genus of perennial and annual herbs belonging to the nightshade family - that is, it is a close relative of potatoes and tomatoes. The Colorado potato beetle, a well-known potato pest, also eats tobacco leaves with an excellent appetite.
And shag is one of the plant species belonging to the genus “tobacco”, in Latin – Nicotiana rustica. Its main difference from other tobacco products is its unpretentiousness.
Due to its high resistance to unfavorable climatic conditions, the border of the shag's distribution range is located much further north than that of other representatives of the genus. In addition, shag is subject to significantly lower requirements than tobacco in general.
The history of the penetration of tobacco into Europe is traditionally associated with the era of great geographical discoveries, when Columbus's sailors brought an unfamiliar plant, and with it the habit of inhaling tobacco smoke.
It is interesting that if tobacco in general is used almost exclusively for the manufacture of cigarettes, cigarettes and cigars, then several more uses have been found for shag. Thanks to high content in citric acid leaves it serves as a raw material for the production of this valuable food product.
In addition, ingredients are extracted from shag to produce nicotine sulfate (a pest control agent) and nicotinic acid (a vitamin involved in many redox processes in the human body).
In the twentieth century in Russia, the smoking masses repeatedly returned to one of their favorite types of applied art - rolling cigarettes. This was also in the post-revolutionary period, when many tobacco factories did not work, during and after the Great Patriotic War when factory products were in short supply. Smoked the so-called<самосад>, more precisely<махорку>(Nicotiana rustica). Spurred on by difficult conditions, creative popular thought reached perfection in<самокруточной>areas. As a result, a truly Russian modification of the rolled cigarette appeared -<козья ножка>. Manufacturing<козьей ножки>- this is a completely special art. From a piece of newspaper, for the master the piece can be of any shape, a unique product is obtained, consisting of five parts: a mouthpiece, a forearm, a joint, a breech and a plug. The design is very similar to smoking pipe. Usually goat leg<заправляли>shag.
There is a set of unspoken rules that should be followed if you decide to try your hand at the difficult art of rolling and smoking cigarettes. Under no circumstances should you roll a cigarette with dirty hands- this is simply nonsense. Not so much because it is unhygienic, but because it is a sacrilege of an age-old ritual. You should never make rolled-up cigarettes in advance, in reserve - not only the smoking process is important, but also the manufacturing process. The ritual requires time and attention. You cannot smoke a rolled-up cigarette on the go or in transport: the ritual, we repeat, cannot be rushed. You should not offer a hand-rolled cigarette you made to someone else, unless, of course, it is your friend who has decided to learn from you the craft of rolling their own.
In the old days, demands were not the same as now - we managed without cars, without electricity, without airplanes, without televisions and even without the Internet. But they couldn’t do without shag. The entire history of our country is firmly connected with it. Whether a peasant sits down to rest near the arable land, whether a worker leaves the workshop after a shift, or whether a soldier lowers his gun during a respite between battles - everyone has it in their hands, a man’s irreplaceable companion, shag.
Since then, almost until the middle of the twentieth century, shag successfully competed with tobacco. Still, it tastes and smells somewhat different and more tartly aromatic. That is why those who believe that shag replaced tobacco for poor people are wrong. It didn’t happen at all - for a change it was smoked and sniffed by representatives of all segments of the population. And if the ladies sniffed the shag with pleasure, and the gentlemen filled their pipes with it, the men twisted the famous “goat legs”.
To create such a cigarette is an art. First, you need thin tissue paper. Since there was always a shortage of it and it was not cheap, newspapers were used. Secondly, you had to be able to twist a “boat”, pour the required amount of shag into it, and then roll it into a tube. The edges of the paper were stuck together with saliva.
The whole stage can now only be seen in films about the war. People of the older generation remember the wonderful song “Let's smoke” performed by K.I. Shulzhenko. The actress very accurately imitated the process of creating a “goat’s leg.”
Shag has another noble purpose: it is indispensable in gardening. You can, of course, poison numerous bugs, flies and fleas with toxic chemicals (which will safely be transferred into the crop), or you can use a win-win remedy - tobacco dust. Just like waste from cigarette production, waste from shag production becomes extremely useful dust.
However, it is not necessary to buy it. It is much better to plant a little shag on your six hundred square meters - it requires almost no care. And spread the leaves throughout the area. And then a multi-million army of small winged parasites will overnight move into the gardens of your “tobacco-free” neighbors. The best way Humanity has not yet come up with the idea of fighting pests and plant diseases.
As for purely smoking properties, shag is good in itself, but it is also widely used as a raw material for nasvay. These are green balls made from a mixture of shag, ashes from burning flax, spicy plants, oil and slaked lime. Nasvay is not smoked, but chewed. Or rather, they put it in the mouth by the upper or lower lip and just hold it. In this case, swallowing saliva is not allowed, otherwise vomiting and diarrhea will begin.
Nasvay is a good remedy for those who quit smoking. But once it becomes a habit, it becomes dangerous, causing chronic diseases oral cavity and gastrointestinal tract.
As a plant, shag, unlike tobacco, is unpretentious. Feels great at all latitudes, even in the Arctic. Even if there is less heat there, there is much more sun (on white nights almost 24 hours a day), and shag respects sunlight more than warmth.
We grew it in the north, and in the south, and on state plantations, and on peasant estates - the demand in the old days was enormous.
By the beginning of the last century, the shag industry firmly occupied one of the first places in the production, in modern terms, of consumer goods. And at the same time, in pursuit of profits, she began to supply elementary hacks to the shelves.
It was thanks to unscrupulous manufacturers that the word badille came into use, becoming a common noun, meaning something empty, counterfeit. In fact, badille are the stems of a plant, the leaves of which are used to make tobacco. They began to add ground badilla to shag, more and more. It ended with the fact that they began to make shag from one badilla - the result was an absolutely black surrogate of the appropriate “quality”.
Of course, the manufacturers were fined, and quite often, but the amount of any fine paled next to the figures that expressed the profit from the sale poor quality goods. When public opinion began to grumble, the manufacturers threw up their hands: they say, we are doing it for you - tobacco and shag contain nicotine, but badilla has almost none. So say thank you for caring about your health.
The controversy ended in 1905, when the government allowed the use of a surrogate, but with a mandatory accompanying inscription on the packaging. Something familiar, isn't it? A hundred years later, we are experiencing a similar epic with juices, lemonades, milk...
Be that as it may, the addition of badilla to shag sharply reduced the popularity of this product, and shag manufacturers had to be content with a pitiful semblance of the former fabulous profits. What can you do, greed is the path to poverty.
Twice after this there was a surge of interest in shag, dictated by sharp deterioration the economic state of the country - during the First World War and the Great Patriotic War. Now shag is pure exotic.
But actually, why? Aren't you interested in trying what our great-grandfathers smoked and snorted? Shag is being produced. There are companies that supply this extraordinary product to all corners of Russia. Unlike what now fills our cigarettes, natural shag does not contain any additives, maintaining its pristine purity. And quality and ecology have always been above fashion.
In any case, in Lately Old Russian songs began to sound on the radio again, glorifying a faithful, reliable friend - shag...
Shag of normal strength should contain 1.4-2.2% nicotine on a dry matter basis. In the RSFSR and the BSSR, planting of shag was carried out with pre-grown seedlings (seedlings), in the Ukrainian SSR - mainly by direct sowing of seeds in the ground. The main botanical varieties of the fifties were: in the RSFSR - AS 18/7, Pekhlets 39/34, Yuryevskaya, Stalingradskaya, yellow - No. 106, No. 109 and LZh-5, as well as Slepukhinskaya, Durman, Prosechanskaya, Saraevskaya, Voronezhskaya No. 2; in the Ukrainian SSR - Khmelevka, Tall Green, Gollandka, LH-1, Egiza, LZh-5, etc.; in the BSSR - Pehlec 39/34, Tall green, Pomeranian.
Plants harvested from the field and dried during the second half of August-October (in Siberia in the spring) were fermented in piles (stacks) in warehouses at a temperature of 18-20° and a relative humidity of 75-80%. Fermentation lasted from 18 to 25 days, during which 2-3 shifts of stacks were made. As a result of fermentation in shag, the smell of greenery and its taste when smoking disappeared, the green color of the leaves turned into brown tones, the content of nicotine and carbohydrates decreased, flammability and storage resistance against mold improved, and the fullness of taste appeared. Violation of these conditions lengthened the fermentation process or led to its incompleteness, i.e., the preservation of the taste of greenery and green tones in color.Crushing machine for shag
Vibrating sieve for sifting shag
Packing machine "PS" for shag
Smoking shag. Due to the fact that the nicotine content in the leaves is much higher than necessary, preparing smoking shag from leaves alone would lead to excessive strength of the shag, so both leaves and badyls, which have a lower nicotine content, were used for preparation. The leaves, after being crushed, turned into soft grains of a dark brown-green color; Badyl - into hard (woody) white grains. The weight ratio of soft and hard particles predetermined the strength of shag and was one of the grounds for dividing into industrial grades. Depending on the botanical varieties of shag, the quality of raw materials and manufacturing methods, shag was divided into five varieties (GOST 936-54): Vergun, Highest quality, Strong No. 1, Medium No. 2, Light No. 3. Cigarettes made from smoking shag were also produced ( see Cigarettes). Certain varieties of smoking shag were characterized as follows.
Vergun was produced from raw materials of a special botanical variety Vergun (Nicotiana Bustica), distinguished yellow leaves, therefore smoking shag made from this raw material had yellow and a specific pleasant aroma of smoke, sharply different from the aroma of smoke of all other botanical varieties of green shag. The highest quality was made from raw materials of only the 1st and 2nd commercial grades.
Strong No. 1, Average N° 2, Easy No. 3 differed in the content of soft and hard particles, nicotine content, and flavor strength. In shag No. 1 the number of solid parts is minimal and increases to a maximum in No. 3.Shag dust generated during processing, in small quantities remained in the finished product, but was mainly sucked out in pneumatic installations and used for the manufacture (without the use of any adhesives) of artificial shag grits. Such artificial grains, similar in size to standard particles, were allowed by GOST as an impurity in grades Nos. 1, 2 and 3, and in Nos. 1 and 2 this impurity is allowed due to soft parts, in No. 3 - due to hard parts. Characteristics of smoking shag varieties and the sizes of shag particles having great importance for the consumer, were determined using a sieving machine with a set of metal sieves with a diameter of 200 mm. Fractionation of a 100-150 g portion of shag was carried out for 10 minutes on a sieving machine with rotational movements at 160 revolutions of the sieving platform per minute.Humidity upon release from the factory should not exceed 20% (by wet weight); An increase in humidity could cause the shag to become moldy. Humidity of shag products intended for long-term storage, should not have been higher than 18%.The main indicators of the quality of smoking shag were: nicotine content, fractional composition, correct weight, humidity and pack design. Quality control was carried out: in relation to nicotine content - by chemical analysis; fractional composition - by sifting the sample on sieves; humidity - drying in special cabinets; the density of the filling and their sealing is organoleptic. To check the quality according to the GOST tasting, a 50-point assessment system was approved for the following organoleptic indicators: smoke smell - maximum score 16, smoke taste - maximum score 18, smoke strength - maximum score 8, fullness of smoke taste - maximum score 8. Depending on the identified defects from the specified maximum points were made (according to special tables) discounts. The final score of the sum of all indicators, minus discounts, for a standard shag had to be at least 35 points. Packed in paper packs with dimensions (in mm): length 84, width 50, height 32; weighing 50 g (at 20% humidity). Deviations were allowed within ± 5%.Smelling makhorka. It was produced according to VTU 256-56, and was a shag plant crushed to a dusty state with the addition of the following flavors and alkalis (in%): peppermint oil(with 50% menthol content) 0.5, rectified alcohol 0.5, refined molasses or glycerin no more than 1, table salt no more than 1, potash, soda ash and 25% ammonia in total number until 3.
Snuff shag was produced in two grades: superior quality and ordinary. The highest quality contained no less than 1.8% nicotine, no more than 1% large particles (by weight). Ordinary shag contained nicotine at least 1.4%, large particles (by weight) up to 2%
Trade in shag by the mid-20s of the 20th century
The nationalized shag industry, both Great Russian and Ukrainian, was initially united in a shag syndicate. Subsequently, the Ukrainian factories, organized into a local trust, left the syndicate.The high cost of yellow tobacco products increased the demand for shag. This circumstance aroused the interest in production of private entrepreneurs who sought to rent idle factories, sometimes the same ones that belonged to them before the revolution, but there are often cases when they organized new ones. The revival of private industry was facilitated by the increase in plantations in tobacco areas in 1928 and a good harvest, especially in Ukraine, which lowered prices for tobacco raw materials. Therefore, in the early 20s there was a fairly noticeable amount of shag from private factories on the market. Most of them had to be treated with the same caution as was recommended in relation to private tobacco factories, and to be seduced by the cheapness of their products; however, in the private shag industry, although still in small numbers, there were already factories that had managed to prove themselves good product which was in demand in the market. Compared to the mass of shag production of state industry, private capital special significance Of course I didn't. Each shag factory produced a product of varying quality.
Smoking shag was prepared from tobacco leaf and the part of the stem or trunk (badilje) on which the leaf is supported. Badille - less valuable part and does not have the strength and aroma that the leaf has. Its purpose, in most cases, is to regulate the strength of shag; The badilla allowance for the manufacture of a certain grade must be in strict proportion to the sheet. Excessive amounts of it reduce the quality of shag and make it cheaper. It was necessary to keep this in mind when purchasing, especially from private factories. Badilla is not difficult to detect during external inspection of any pack of tobacco. It looks like whitish slivers.The significant presence of badilla gave a light color to the product, and the predominance of leaf crumbs gave a dark green color.
Before the First World War, shag production was designed for different but specific consumer tastes. So, the north demanded black, strong shag, Siberia - strong, Central Russia - middle and the south - light, weaker goods. Previous manufacturers met these requirements. The largest factories produced eight varieties of shag of different numbers and names: “ordinary”, “semi-pure”, “semi-grain”, “cleaned vein”, etc. By the mid-20s, factories produced mainly the middle type called “semi-grit” No. 8", but there was already a tendency to increase the production of other varieties in accordance with previous tastes. This was in line with the interests of production itself, since raw materials were used more rationally and the cost of the product was reduced.
The varieties and qualities of shag depended on the raw material (leaf tobacco) purchased in the fall after the harvest. Mahorka was cultivated in Central Russia, mainly in the provinces of Tambov, Voronezh and Ryazan, partly in Kursk and the Volga region (Saratov province). In Ukraine - mainly in the Poltava and Chernigov provinces; During the civil war, tobacco planting intensified in Siberia. The main areas for the procurement of raw materials in Central Russia: Pekhletsky, Prosechansky and Ryazhsky - Ryazan province; Usmansky and Krivsky - Voronezh province; Marshansky, Yuryevsky and Seslavinsky - Tambov province; in Ukraine the counties are: Lokhvitsky, Romensky, Priluksky, Konotopsky, Nezhinsky, Borzenkovsky and Kozeletsky.
In terms of the quality of leaf tobacco, the best areas in Central Russia were considered: Pekhletsky and the villages of Usman district; in Ukraine: Konotopsky, Lokhvitsky and Romensky. In turn, in each region the raw material - tobacco - was divided into grades I, II and III.
As you know, the price of raw materials determines the cost and selling price of the product. The higher the raw material, the more expensive price finished shag. Price the best varieties in the procurement season of 1924 it reached 4 rubles. 50 kopecks, dropping to 1 ruble in the worst cases. 50 kopecks Factory methods of processing raw materials also affect the selling price. Raw tobacco materials in general, and early purchases in particular, produced a large percentage of shrinkage and waste in the form of tobacco dust. In reputable, well-equipped factories, the drying of crumbled tobacco and the elimination of tobacco dust were the subject of special attention. Well-dried shag, without dust, was valued higher. Among other advantages, it withstood long-term storage, without leaving yellowness on the package and retaining until the end total weight indicated on the label. Tobacco crumbs played a significant role in production. Well-crushed shag looked like small cubes of the same size. The even fine crumb of normally dried tobacco made it easier to stuff into packs; they came out of the printing press dense and neat in shape. On the contrary, packs filled with unevenly crumbled and undried tobacco became soft and flabby over time and from transportation.
So, best shag was the factory that: 1) prepared the product from raw materials from the best areas; 2) successfully combined (merged) different in strength, aroma and taste qualities, varieties of tobacco; 3) added normal percentage badilla; 4) dried the crumbs well, and 5) eliminated as much dust as possible from the finished product.
In addition to smoking, larger factories also produced snuff .Before the Civil War, 2 varieties were produced - “select mint” and “green mint” - the latter for 3-4 rubles. a pood cheaper than the first one.
Snuff was prepared by crushing specially selected varieties of dried shag leaves (without badilla) into powder; To this, a significant part (up to 50%) was added tobacco dust, purified from foreign impurities. The amount of added dust was not the same. Each factory set the dust percentage in its own way. The resulting mixture was flavored with a special aromatic liquid, the recipe for which was usually a factory secret. Before the war, snuff was sold at 7-8 kopecks per pound more expensive than smoking shag, but in the twenties, on the contrary, snuff was valued cheaper. The explanation for this must be sought in the amount of added dust, the thoroughness of processing and the cost of aromatic substances.
Good snuff - dark green, leaves a feeling of soft velvety powder to the touch, but the smell and effect on the sense of smell are always a matter of taste. Packaging was carried out in ⅛ pounds (20 grams).
Shag (lat. Nicotiána rústica) is a species of herbaceous plants from the subgenus Country Tobacco (Rustica) of the Tobacco genus of the Solanaceae family. The word “shag” comes from the name of the city of Amersfoort, which was famous for its tobacco industry in the 18th century.
In Russia and neighboring countries, shag is grown in the southern regions and in middle lane, but in smaller quantities than ordinary tobacco.
IN Latin America use the name “mapacho” to refer to both the shag itself and cigarettes without a filter. Cooked shag tobacco rolled into rolls is called "masatos"
Shag leaves, after fermentation and drying, are used for smoking, and previously they were used to make citric acid, nicotine for the production of nicotine sulfate (for pest control of agricultural crops) and nicotinic acid
The plant is an attribute of healing ceremonies using ayahuasca. Often used in conjunction with other medicinal plants to enhance their effects.
Direct use of tobacco - neutralization of snake venom, wound infections. In Ayahuasca ceremonies, curanderos use tobacco to drive away evil spirits, cleanse space, and relieve traumatic shock.
What is the difference between shag and tobacco?
Often in Soviet films we heard about such a smoking substance as shag. Men tarred it with enviable regularity, and the thick smoke from the cigarette was a striking element even in black and white films. With the development of the tobacco industry, the need to use shag for smoking has disappeared, but now, due to rising prices for cigarettes, many old-timers are returning to simple homemade cigarettes. So what is shag and how does it differ from regular tobacco?
Quality and taste of shag
There is an opinion that shag is the cheapest and low-quality type of tobacco, which was used only by the poorest segments of the population - peasants and workers. In fact, this is not true. Makhorka belongs to an independent species of plants from the nightshade family; its other names are Indian, country or Turkish tobacco. It appeared in everyday life on the European continents thanks to sailors who transported shag along with potatoes from South America. Since then, it has become tobacco's main competitor. This is not surprising - shag has a unique smell and spicy taste.
Shag seeds can grow in soil with any composition. Thanks to such unpretentiousness, it began to quickly spread throughout Europe, including reaching Russia, where people of all classes used it for smoking. Packaging of shag rolled into " goat leg", became an integral part of the image of a soldier during the Great Patriotic War, when this substance was included in the list necessary products for the army.
Shag is not tobacco at all
Nicotiana rustic (Country tobacco), plants of the same genus, but a completely different species. it gained popularity due to the plant’s ability to grow in absolutely any area, and therefore its low cost due to the lack of significant expenses for imports.
Shag was made in two main varieties:
1. Smoking room. It was made from the leaves and a small part of the stems of the plant, since making shag for smoking from leaves alone would lead to an undesirable concentration of nicotine in the finished product. Thus, the smoking material was a mixture of brownish grains from the leaves, as well as white grains from the stems of the plant.
2.Snuff. Included ground leaves of the plant, as well as essential oil mint, glycerin, ammonia and wine alcohol, salt, refined molasses, sodium carbonate, potash.
Makhorka has become a native Russian, as Peter the Great said, “pampering”. It is worth noting that now its use may also become relevant, since smoking a mixture from a natural plant is much cheaper and safer than using cigarettes from large tobacco companies.
Seedlings are protected from any frost. When it reaches a height of 10 cm and has five leaves, it can be planted. It is better to do this from May 20 to June 15. Seedlings are planted in beds with distances of 30 by 70 cm.
In the summer, the soil is loosened several times and weeds are pulled out. When two or three flowers open, the entire inflorescence and part of the upper leaves are removed from the plant. This technique is called topping. For ripening, up to ten leaves are left on each plant, and the excess ones are removed. When lateral shoots appear, reaching five cm in length, they are also all removed.
The shag is removed for drying about a month after finishing. By this time, the middle leaves of the plants droop to the ground, become covered with light yellow spots and emit a strong odor.
First, stratification is performed.
In the middle of the day, the stem of each plant is cut lengthwise: from the crown to the bottom, not reaching three cm from the soil.
After two days, all plants are cut down near the soil level and left in place to wilt.
Then the harvest is brought under a canopy and placed for simmering for a day in a ridge no more than half a meter high. Make sure that the temperature in the ridge does not exceed 35 degrees. The leaves become brownish-brown in the cluster.
After this, the shag stems are hung in the barn in small bunches for 30-40 days to dry. Their humidity is adjusted to 35 percent.
The leaves are separated from the stem and separately, both are crushed by cutting.
In our society, the word shag is associated with tobacco. But in reality it is a different plant. Moreover, it is used not only for smoking. Although its leaves and stems, ground into powder, are used to make cigarettes, chewing and snorting powder.
Complete benefit
Shag seeds are used to make oil for the paint and soap industries. Nicotinic and citric acid are also produced from it. In addition, the preparation from shag is used in garden plots to get rid of pests. The Indians prepare a decoction from it that neutralizes and cleanses wounds from infection. Shamans use it to expel evil spirits. It turns out that shag is a plant that can be beneficial, and not just spoil the health of those who smoke.
Where does he live and what does he look like?
It came to us at the beginning of the 17th century. Before this, in the 16th century, shag spread to Europe, where it was brought from Florida. It received its name in the 8th century. Raw materials from this plant came in large quantities to the Dutch city of Amersfoort, where smoking powder was made from it for the whole of Europe. And the often repeated phrase “tobacco from Amersfoort” has been transformed into a name that is already familiar to us. It is grown in our country in the south and in the middle zone, as well as in Algeria, India, Poland, Tunisia, the USA and other countries. This plant is unpretentious and can take root on any soil, although the best for it are sandy loam, loamy, podzolized areas, fertilized organic fertilizers. It has round leaves with a fuzzy, resinous surface, and yellow or white tubular flowers with pungent odor. It can reach 1 meter in height. Shag is a plant that does not tolerate frost. It dies even at -2 degrees.
Down the stairs
Although we are accustomed to the fact that shag is smoked by those who do not have the financial means to buy more expensive cigarettes, in the 8th century even Peter I was fond of it. His entourage shared the royal addiction to harmful fun. Therefore, members of the upper class also smoked shag, and there were different varieties of this plant to choose from. But it was also available to ordinary people who did not have the money to purchase ready-made smoking products. Therefore, ordinary people have adapted to making “roll-your-own” cigarettes. To do this, scraps of thin paper were used. Gradually, in order to make more money, manufacturers of the smoking mixture began to make it not from leaves, but from stems. Therefore, those who could afford it switched to tobacco. Mahorka faded into the background because the raw materials from which it was now prepared contained much less nicotine. Nowadays, smokers prefer tobacco. But shag contains less harmful resins and additives and, thus, is less harmful to human health. Yes, and it costs less.
Growing shag
IN field conditions They try to plant it after legumes, vegetables, perennial grasses, corn, winter grains, and root crops. The soil must be fertilized with nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. It is planted by sowing or using seedlings. Seeds are lowered into the ground to a depth of 1 centimeter, and both germinated and dry are used, which allows you to get a harvest even if some of them die from unfavorable weather conditions. natural conditions. If all conditions are met, then chemical composition This plant will meet the standards, which means it will make an excellent shag. At home, you can also grow and produce it for your own needs.
Try it yourself
To plant shag, you need to select its seeds. You can buy them at a gardening store. Common varieties are Pekhlets local, Pehlets 4, Datura 4. Mahorka is an unpretentious plant, but not frost-resistant, so if you plan to plant it not in an apartment, but on a personal plot, choose the right month of planting. The best choice is one in which there are definitely no frosts in your zone, starting in May. In cold regions, greenhouses must be used. The soil on which shag will grow must be fertilized and moistened. Poor composition and dry soil will not allow you to obtain high-quality raw materials.
Prepare in advance
When growing shag at home, it is better not to sow, but to plant previously obtained seedlings. This way, you will know exactly which plants are able to survive, and you will not have to wait for seeds to germinate, which may die in the ground, and the optimal time for planting will be missed. In the apartment, use boxes or pots installed on the windowsill on the south side. start in March, then in May you will be able to plant seedlings in the street soil.
What's next
They are placed at a distance of 25 centimeters from each other. The soil between them must be regularly loosened, fed, and removed from weeds. It is necessary to water rarely, but abundantly. When flowers appear, they are pruned. With proper care, the harvest, which can be harvested after 70 days, will be good. Now you need to properly dry the plants, first collecting them in in the right order. Start with the lower leaves, then move to the rest from bottom to top. Lay them in a layer of no more than 30 centimeters and keep them in the shade for 12 hours. Then, for pre-drying, they are strung on a cord and hung in an open place, protected from rain, for 2 weeks. After which they are removed from the ropes and placed indoors until autumn. Then all that remains is to grind the raw materials and use them for your own needs.
Mahorka is a plant that helped our people in hard times. And now those who want to get a natural smoking mixture, which differs in quality from store-bought cigarettes for the better, without any special material and physical costs, can begin to grow it.
Thanks to Russian literature and Soviet cinema, shag began to be considered synonymous with tobacco. In fact, all the prerequisites for considering these two plants as a single whole are obvious: they belong to the same genus, are used for smoking... And only relatively recently the general public began to receive information that shag and tobacco are almost the same thing, but not quite.
Tobacco relative
So, where did the confusion between shag and tobacco come from? This question impossible to resolve without delving into the depths of botany. And in these depths the following answer is revealed: shag, which has scientific name Nicotiana Rustica is one of three subspecies of the genus of herbaceous plants known collectively as tobacco. Plants are grouped into this genus based on the content of a substance such as nicotine in the stems and leaves. However, the tobacco that is primarily used for smoking, which gave rise to the smoking process itself, is correctly called one of the subspecies of this genus, Nicotiana Tabacum (the third subspecies are plants united under the name Nicotiana Petunioides). Thus, if we apply human related categories to plants, it turns out that shag is cousin tobacco
This plant received the generally accepted name “shag” in the 18th century thanks to the Dutch city of Amersfoort, where it was supplied at that time a large number of raw materials from this plant. Here the raw materials were processed accordingly and then distributed throughout Europe in the form of a dry powder suitable for use in the smoking process. The phrase “tobacco from Amersfoort” quickly transformed into the word “shag,” which entered the international lexicon.
Externally, shag is an annual herbaceous plant with wrinkled leaves of green with a bluish tint on a stem that can reach a height of more than one meter. During the flowering period, yellow-green flowers appear on the plant, emitting a rather pungent, specific odor. In general, makhorka is a fairly unpretentious plant for growing and cultivating, but is very sensitive to low temperatures and does not survive even light frosts. Shag leaves contain from 5 to 15% nicotine and from 15 to 20% organic acids. The content of these substances in the plant stem is approximately one and a half times lower.
Makhorka is almost “Russian” tobacco
In many ways, it was the popularity and widespread distribution of shag that became the reason for its gradual disappearance from the historical arena. As often happens, it was not concern for health that intervened (they started talking openly and reasonably about the dangers of smoking only in the middle of the 20th century), but elementary human greed. Shag producers, taking advantage of the lack of a system state control quality of this product, in the second half of the century before last they began to increasingly use the so-called badille in production - that is, not the leaves, but the stems of shag. As is known, the nicotine content in the stems is lower, and they also have a certain specific odor. The costs of processing badilla were lower than for following the entire technological process in relation to shag leaves, which was the reason for first introducing a share of the stems into shag, and then completely making shag almost entirely from badilla. As a result, the quality of smoking powder deteriorated sharply, and shag gradually lost ground in the competition with tobacco, which at that time was actively developing the “cigarette” market. The consumption of shag was subsequently revived only twice, in connection with the two World Wars, when the consumption of smoking mixtures increased many times over. However, after World War II, shag finally turned into a smoking exotic.
Alexander Babitsky
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