100 TOBACCO LEAF. 



tially responsible for it. He used samples sterilized, 

 and others unsterilized, taken from the same lot of 

 tobacco ; some was kept at a uniform temperature and 

 some simply prevented from cooling below a certain 

 point. He concludes that at a temperature below 104 

 F., or above 158 F , and possibly varying little from 

 122 F., the action is a purely chemical one, with which 

 lower organisms have nothing to do. Theoretically, he 

 believes the changes Drought about by snuff fermenta- 

 tions might be accomplished entirely without the aid of 

 lower organisms. In practice, however, they serve to 

 start the changes and develop the heat that is necessary 

 to setting up the more rapid oxidations. " The physical 

 properties of a good snuff tobacco," he says, "can be 

 secured in two months at 158 F., in less time at 176 

 F., and in ten to twelve days at 212 F., while the desired 

 internal chemical changes are accomplished in the same 

 period at the latter temperature." He finds that a new 

 fermentation is set up every time the tobacco is turned 

 and repacked, and that the sum of the carbonic acid 

 and oxygen in the air of the cases always exceeds 21 per 

 cent, and may run up to 35 per cent. This is regarded 

 as an evidence of the activity of anaerobic ferments. 

 Schloesing found present a bacillus and a diplococcus. 



He compared the snuff fermentation with the 

 aerobic fermentation of stable manure. Fesca and 

 Imai * think it more closely comparable to the process 

 of ensilage. But Behrens claims that, owing to the 

 watery condition of silage, the fermentation of brown 

 hay, a dryer product not in use in America, is more 

 strictly analogous. 



In the "sweating" of ordinary leaf, especially as 

 practiced in Germany, Nessler says that a temperature 

 of 106 F. is attained in the heap at a depth of one foot 



Lanclwirtliscliaftliches Jahrbuch, 1888, p. 327. 



