228 ALCOHOL, VINEGAR, SAUER KRAUT, TOBACCO, SILAGE, FLAX. 



with special preparations, a process called "petuning." These 

 preparations are usually secrets, and each plantation is likely to 

 have its own. They consist of mixtures of various chemicals, of 

 which organic fluids containing ammonium carbonate frequently 

 form a part. The action of this petuning is problematical, but it 

 is believed by the planters to contribute to the production of the 

 peculiar flavors of Cuban tobacco. 



Now these mixtures are good culture media for bacteria, and 

 when they are sprinkled upon the tobacco the leaves are, in a way, 

 inoculated with bacteria. On such petuned leaves bacteria are 

 abundant. But there is no evidence at hand to indicate whether 

 these bacteria have anything to do with the production of flavor. 

 It is certainly not impossible nor improbable that the flavor 

 production, which does not seem to appear typically outside of 

 Cuba, may be due in part to bacterial action, possibly to the action 

 of the very bacteria that the planter unconsciously sprinkles over his 

 leaves in the petuning which occurs before the fermentation begins. 



Of course the suggestion that the flavor of tobacco may be 

 improved by the use of artificial pure cultures in the fermentation 

 is a natural one. The acknowledged relations of bacteria to the 

 flavors of butter, cheese, and other products naturally suggest an 

 attempt to improve the flavors of tobacco by bacterial inoculation. 

 Several experimenters have been trying this plan for years, with 

 what success it is hardly possible to say. The manifest financial 

 importance of such a. process, could it be made successful, has 

 inclined experimenters to keep their work secret. While it has 

 several times been claimed that by the use of proper bacterial 

 cultures Havana flavors can be obtained in tobacco fermented 

 elsewhere, these claims have not yet been substantiated by any 

 public demonstration. They are still made by some who insist 

 that they have actually been successful in this line of experimenting 

 and that they have made Havana flavors from common tobacco 

 by bacterial inoculations. 



Diseases of Tobacco. Whether or not microorganisms play 

 a part in the normal ripening, it is certain that they sometimes injure 

 the crop and produce abnormal fermentation. The presence of 



