156 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



These two matters which I have discussed this morning 

 cover, I think, the latest results of experiments with tobacco 

 which are of special interest to growers. 



We do not anticipate any sudden revolution in the settled 

 methods of raising, curing, or fermenting cigar wrapper 

 leaf, nor is it desirable or necessary that there should be. 

 Good, sound, well-handled New England Havana and broad- 

 leaf will not be banished from the market at once. The 

 fashion in tobacco may change. But if the trade insists on 

 leaf of the Sumatra type, and if it becomes evident that 

 our domestic type of leaf cannot maintain itself in the 

 market at paying prices, we shall know, very much better 

 than we did two years ago, which way to turn. 



Ex-Governor Hoard. I understood the lecturer to say 

 that the curing agent in the tobacco was not bacterial, but 

 a chemical ferment. Is that somewhat allied in its character 

 to the enzymic forces at work in curing cheese? 



Dr. Jenkins. It is precisely the same in its character. 



Ex-Governor Hoard. You seem to strike a difference. 

 You must have a certain degree of heat to have the enzymes 

 work in tobacco, whereas in cheese they work at a very low 

 temperature. 



Dr. Jenkins. Yes, that is true. Of course there are 

 a very large number of enzymes that have been already 

 isolated, and there must be a great many more that we 

 know nothing about. The conditions in which they work 

 are very different. Some work in a very low temperature, 

 others at a much higher temperature; some are killed by 

 heat, a very moderate heat, blood heat, while others need a 

 very much higher heat to sustain their activity. The gen- 

 eral word " enzyme" covers a large number of these differ- 

 ent chemical ferments, which have different properties, like 

 the saliva of the salivary gland, which converts starch into 

 sugar, or the pepsin, which alters the nitrogenous bodies in 

 food. 



Ex-Governor Hoard. I do not quite understand the 

 process of stringing. You describe, if I understand, strings 

 fastened to lath? 



Dr. Jenkins. You take these lath and notch them at 



