374 TOBACCO LEAF. 



When the box has been filled nearly to the top, it is 

 put under a lever press, the lever being about 12 feet 

 long, to the ends of which heavy weights are attached 

 so as to bring a pressure of about 7000 pounds upon the 

 tobacco in the box. After the tobacco has been under 

 this continual pressure for 24 hours, it is taken out and 

 the twists are opened, shaken and exposed to the air for 

 a short time until the exuded juices are reabsorbed. 

 These juices resemble thin tar, being black, thick and 

 ropy. After this curing, the twists are again put under 

 pressure for 24 hours, and then aired for a second time. 

 This process continues with each box of tobacco for 10 

 days in succession, and then the manipulation is less 

 frequent, once in every three or four days being deemed 

 sufficient. When the tobacco, at the expiration of 

 some three months, is fully cured in its own juices, it 

 diffuses a rich, spirituous, aromatic odor, exceedingly 

 agreeable, the results of the aeration and absorption of 

 its own juices. From a light brown, the tobacco has 

 gradually grown darker, until, at the close of the 

 process, it shines in oily and lustrous blackness. 



The Perique tobacco is cured and preserved by the 

 resinous and fatty substances, and the alkaloids and 

 acids contained in the natural leaf. The pressure of a 

 screw will not answer the purpose, for in that case the 

 juices woul'd be gradually reabsorbed without being 

 aerated. It is important that there be a continuity of 

 pressure, so as to keep the juices pressed from the] leaf. 

 Dr. Gideon E. Moore, who spent much time in investi- 

 gating for the government the changes that take place 

 in the tobacco plant by different methods of curing, says: 



"In the case of Perique tobacco, 'cured in its 

 juices,' we have manifestly an instance of a conversion 

 of a large portion of both the citric and the malic acids 

 into acetic and butyric acid, and the agreeable, fruity 

 odor which this tobacco acquires during the fermeuta- 



