154 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



ferments, oxidize, and liberate heat in so doing. So great 

 is this heat that a bulk of wrapper leaf, left to itself, might 

 be damaged or ruined by cooking. Heavy filler leaf some- 

 times reaches a temperature of 150° F. in the bulk, while 

 at that heat wrappers would be injured. 



Now, in whichever way we sweat the leaf, the process is 

 as I have described, but the result depends upon the skill 

 with which it is done. It is possible to undcrsweat or over- 

 sweat the leaf, or to sweat it unevenly. Molds may get in 

 and cause mustiness ; bacteria may attack and rot or " can- 

 ker" the packing. 



By the commonly used "natural sweat" process the to- 

 bacco is tightly packed in cases during winter and early 

 spring, and put away in unheated store-rooms, where it lies 

 until the turning of the season warms it enough to start the 

 ferments, and then the processes of fermenting and aging- 

 go on together. 



No method is better than this, when it goes right. The 

 trouble is that it often goes wrong. When the tobacco lies 

 dormant, before fermentation begins, molds may attack and 

 damage it. Sometimes you can detect this trouble in spring, 

 before fermentation begins, by the smell of the warehouse 

 room, but there is no chance of doing anything to check it. 

 If it is in high " case," very damp, that is, when it is 

 packed, canker and rot may injure or ruin it. In any event 

 the tobacco is unevenly sweated, that on the outside being 

 often resweat by the cigar maker before he can work it. 



Most of these troubles are avoided by fermenting in bulk. 

 The process, in brief, is this : The tobacco, in hands, is 

 piled on a platform raised a few inches from the floor, and 

 which may be covered with fermenting trash tobacco, to give 

 bottom heat. The platform is 5 feet wide, and as long as 

 necessary to make the bulk about (> feet high. The leaves 

 are laid smoothly in rows, butts out, shingle fashion, the 

 butts of one row lying on the middle of the leaves of the 

 next row towards the side. The workmen stand at the sides 

 of the bulk, no heavy pressure being put on it. Thermom- 

 eters are put inside the bulk, and when it is built up, the 

 whole is covered, top and sides, with woolen blankets, on 



