162 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



in danger of some trouble or other. Either it cures down 

 too quickly or fulls up when it first goes in, and you can't 

 get the air through, and you have got to look out for pole- 

 burn. 



Mr. Russell. One more question. There are a great 

 many farmers here to-day, — tobacco farmers who want to 

 get a little information on the steaming process. Provi- 

 dence isn't helping us to any damp weather these days. 

 Farmers want to know if you can give them any information 

 on that subject. 



Dr. Jenkins. Well, as a result of my early religious ed- 

 ucation, I should say a steam boiler was a poor substitute 

 for a wise Providence, anywhere ; still, if you can't have 

 Providence, you have got to have steam, I suppose. I have 

 had no experience with steaming tobacco in the shed to get 

 it into case to take down. I have had some experience with 

 casing in the sorting room, where we were getting ready to 

 ferment the tobacco, and wanted to keep the tobacco in 

 case while lying in the room, and there I have never been 

 satisfied with dry steam running into the room. It will get 

 the tobacco into case, but you shut it off, and it is gone. 

 Tobacco doesn't hold the moisture it has got, as it docs 

 when water vapor or wet steam is used. It seems to bring it 

 into case superficially, and then it dries out more readily. 

 In the sorting room, of course, where you are packing down 

 tobacco, the ideal way for getting moisture is to run steam 

 into barrels of water, and brine the water to the boilimr 

 point, and there you have what an engineer would call wet 

 steam. If you are going to run a locomotive or stationary 

 engine, you have to have dry steam, so you won't have water 

 vapor to blow out the cylinder head ; but here with tobacco 

 the ideal thing would be a fine spray, and the nearest }^ou 

 can come to that is wet steam, — steam coming from the 

 surface of boiling water. 



There is one more thing I want to say with regard to 

 pole-sweat. None of us here have any pole-sweat in our 

 own barns, but all our neighbors have got it, and we know it. 



Mr. Russell. That is just so here. 



Dr. Jenkins. In Poquonock there is none in our own 



