THE CULTURE OF TOBACCO. 155 



on this a layer of the best wrapper leaves is laid, with their best 

 side down, aad so ariunged as to have their fibres point to a 

 longitudinal median line. A half inch of leaves is then placed on 

 this, and after being covered with another cloth is tramped. 

 The ends of the cloth are then doubled over for about three inches, 

 and the whole tramped again. The tobacco is then rolled into a 

 cylinder, and the loose ends tucked down into the hollow centre. 

 The end^ of the cloth are then tied, and the carrotte, which now 

 weighs four pounds, and is fifteen inches long liy three in diameter, 

 is wound tightly with a one-third inch rope ; the winding is done 

 by means of a special windlass. The following day the rope is 

 re-wound, and left on for three months, or until it is ready for 

 the market. To market the carrottes they are packed in five 

 hundred pound whiskey barrels. The average yield is about five 

 hundred pounds of finished tobacco per acre. The average selling 

 price is one shilling and ninepence per pound. Because of their 

 peculiar system of fermentation, which the United States authorities 

 have decided to be a process of manufacture, the Pei'ique growers 

 are obliged to have a manufacturer's licence, and place revenue 

 stamps on all their tobacco. 



Except by the producers themselves, Perique is seldom used 

 in the pure form, but it is highly pi'ized for blending with other 

 tobaccos. A small amount is made into cigars, but the major 

 portion is used in the best grades of pipe tobaccos in England and 

 America. The production could be enormously increased, and no 

 doubt would be, if others than the quiet Arcadians should take 

 the matter up. 



The aroma, like the aroma of all tobaccos, improves with age, 

 and the memory of some nine year old Perique still haunts me. 



To us Perique is important, not that we may hope to 

 transfer its culture to Africa, but from the principle involved in 

 its curing and fermentation. The use of pressure, and the oxidiza- 

 tion of the juice by direct exposure to the air, may be applicable 

 to other tobaccos, and while a Perique may not be produced, 

 something else with a distinct pleasing odour of its own may be 

 the result. In fact, it is known that the principle can be used 

 with good results, for, in one of the large tobacco centres of 

 America, there is a leaf handler who makes a business of buying 

 up a certain grade of cheap leaf and, by the application of heat 

 and pressure, producing an imitation Perique that is proving very 

 acceptable to those independent manufacturers who are short of 

 the real article. 



The constant expression and absorption and the resultant 

 oxidization of the juices appear to change a large portion of the citric 

 and malic acids into acetic and butyric acids. The finished Perique 

 contains only one-fourth of the citric acid, one-half or less of the nitric, 

 and six times the acetic acid contained by the air-cured leaf. Certain 

 volatile oils are also produced. 



TOBACCO CULTURE IN SUMATRA. 



Because of the unique system used, and the high quality of the 

 leaf produced, a short description of the culture of tobacco in Sumatra 

 may be of interest and value. 

 ■ l2 



