IMI'KOYKI) MKTIInl.s 



NICOTIANA 



Manufacture 



in .iniMiiiit the tannin also decreases, and it seems probable that this 



ise may be the prim i[> tl -ausein the change of the colour of the leaf. 



In the sweating or icnnentation which follows, the last traces of sugar 



disappear; iii.-..tin.- .[< iv.ises in quantity and there is a corresponding 



tin- amides resulting from its decomposition. The leaf becomes 



alkaline, and further progressi\ ke place in the colour 



;n nl .iroma. A slow after fermentation then takes place, during which the 



colour and aroma gradually become ripened. During or after sweating 



the tobacco is often sprinkled in America with a so-called ' petuning ' 



li.|iinl. the composition of which is kept secret, but whose principal fun- 



sn-n.s to be to increase the alkalinity of the leaf and so hasten the changes 



ahvady described." 



Improved Methods of Manufacture. In some of the experiment* 

 conducted by the Agricultural Department of the United States, it has 

 been shown that during fermentation certain undesirable changes take 

 place together with the disappearance of a large amount of nicotine. Ac- 

 cordingly the system of fermenting in stacks has been condemned and the 

 substitution of closed fermentation tanks recommended. This American 

 system, however, is not sufficiently used as yet to justify its being re- 

 commended for India. A small quantity of already fermented tobacco is 

 placed along with the new leaf in order to start the fermentation. 



Enough has been said to indicate the transitional stage of modern 

 research into tobacco manufacture and the complete lack of knowledge 

 that prevails in India. It is no matter for surprise, therefore, that the 

 Government of India should have deemed a tobacco expert imperatively 

 necessary. Rapid and satisfactory though the progress has been in 

 certain directions of the Indian trade, skilled supervision and definite 

 research locally conducted seems almost certain to effect improvements 

 calculated to place India in the foremost ranks of the tobacco-producing 

 countries of the world. 



NATIVE AND EUROPEAN MANUFACTURED TOBACCOES. With 

 the Natives of India crudely cured tobacco-leaf is usually reduced to a 

 powder, damped, mixed with gur (pp. 952, 1109), also various flavouring 

 ingredients, and thus made into large cakes. In this form it is sold to the 

 consumer. The pipe ordinarily used is a hollow vessel or cocoanut shell 

 partially filled with water. From this vessel arise two tubes one the 

 mouthpiece, the other the attachment for the actual pipe, the chilam, or 

 vessel containing the tobacco. The smoke is thus drawn through water 

 before reaching the mouth. The tobacco is ignited with a live coal or 

 burning cake of specially prepared charcoal. 



The crudely prepared leaf is simply rolled between the hands, com- 

 pressed into a conveniently sized ball, and placed within the chilam. 

 But with many of the hill tribes a crude pipe is used that hardly differs 

 from that employed in Europe the boll being made from a short joint of 

 a bamboo and the stem a common reed. Indeed in many cases the pipe 

 may be constructed, for each smoke, of soft mud placed on a stone, the boll 

 having a small opening at the bottom against which the lips are pressed 

 in smoking. It is only of South India and Burma that it can be said that 

 smoking cigars has become so general that it can be described as a wide- 

 spread habit. But within recent years great progress has been made in 

 local cigar manufacture, and steadily the practice of cigar-smoking seems 

 to be gaining ground with the better classes of Natives all over the country. 



807 



In lU'i Future 

 Portion. 



Manufac- 

 tures. 



Mixed with 



Sugar. 



Water Pipe 



Crode Ptpem. 



ogmn. 



