SCIENCE IN ITS APPLICATION. 83 



tains, the longer it will continue to glow when lighted. 

 The higher the per cent of potash, the more chlorine 

 may be present without seriously affecting the burn of 

 the leaf. A Sumatra leaf with 0.64 to 0.78 per cent of 

 chlorine and 5 per cent of potash, burned very well, 

 while a Baden tobacco with 0.4 per cent chlorine and 

 only 3 per cent of potash burned badly. On the other 

 hand, the less chlorine there is in the leaf, the less pot- 

 ash is necessary to secure a good burning quality. He 

 concludes that no tobacco burns well which has less 

 than 2.5 per cent potash, if there is with it more than 

 0.4 per cent chlorine. 



Schloesing made some experiments on poor, sandy 

 soil that was somewhat calcareous, and yet clayey 

 enough to be rather tenacious. The soil contained very 

 little chlorine, sulphuric acid or potash. Plots to which 

 no potash was applied gave bad-burning tobacco ; 

 those fertilized with chlorides gave tobacco which con- 

 tained about four times as much chlorine as the others, 

 showing that chlorine is readily assimilated by the plant ; 

 and the tobacco containing this large proportion of chlo- 

 rine burned badly. 



Both Schloesing and Nessler, from independent ex- 

 periments and investigations, agree that the burning 

 quality of tobacco is governed by the presence of the 

 soluble carbonate of potash, and that when the potash is 

 combined with chlorine, the combustibility is poor. This 

 is not fully confirmed by the Poquonock experiments, 

 which seem to indicate that a small amount of 

 chlorine is not objectionable, while it is essential to nor- 

 mal plant growth. But an excess of chlorine is unfavor- 

 able to a good burn. This is true both before and after 

 fermentation. Plots K and L received much more chlo- 

 rine than the others, it being supplied in the double 

 manure salt ; the leaf from these plots had less capacity 

 to hold fire than most of the others. 



