Analyses of indices observed in macro-photographs of a variety of cigarette cross-sections have shown that tobacco shreds forming the internal structure of cigarettes are highly arranged in a defined pattern in which their lenghts are predominantly oriented along the cigarette lenghts and their widths _ parallel to the cigarette seams. These pattern-arrangements of tobacco shreds have an effect upon the dielectric properties and deformation of cigarettes. The deformation has been found to be bigger when measured perpendicular to seams.