228 ALCOHOL, VINEGAR, SAUER KRAUT, TOBACCO, SILAGE, FLAX. 
with special preparations, a process called "petuning." These 
preparations are usually secrets, and each plantation is likely to 
have its own. They consist of mixtures of various chemicals, of 
which organic fluids containing ammonium carbonate frequently 
form a part. The action of this petuning is problematical, but it 
is believed by the planters to contribute to the production of the 
peculiar flavors of Cuban tobacco. 
Now these mixtures are good culture media for bacteria, and 
when they are sprinkled upon the tobacco the leaves are, in a way, 
inoculated with bacteria. On such petuned leaves bacteria are 
abundant. But there is no evidence at hand to indicate whether 
these bacteria have anything to do with the production of flavor. 
It is certainly not impossible nor improbable that the flavor 
production, which does not seem to appear typically outside of 
Cuba, may be due in part to bacterial action, possibly to the action 
of the very bacteria that the planter unconsciously sprinkles over his 
leaves in the petuning which occurs before the fermentation begins. 
Of course the suggestion that the flavor of tobacco may be 
improved by the use of artificial pure cultures in the fermentation 
is a natural one. The acknowledged relations of bacteria to the 
flavors of butter, cheese, and other products naturally suggest an 
attempt to improve the flavors of tobacco by bacterial inoculation. 
Several experimenters have been trying this plan for years, with 
what success it is hardly possible to say. The manifest financial 
importance of such a process, could it be made successful, has 
inclined experimenters to keep their work secret. While it has 
several times been claimed that by the use of proper bacterial 
cultures Havana flavors can be obtained in tobacco fermented 
elsewhere, these claims have not yet been substantiated by any 
public demonstration. They are still made by some who insist 
that they have actually been successful in this line of experimenting 
and that they have made Havana flavors from common tobacco 
by bacterial inoculations. 
Diseases of Tobacco. Whether or not microorganisms play 
a part in the normal ripening, it is certain that they sometimes injure 
the crop and produce abnormal fermentation. The presence of 
