52 BULLETIN 737, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
standpoint gave negative results it has been found that the process 
may be employed in connection with the fumigation of infested 
tokacco (fig. 15). 
SEALED CONTAINERS FOR MANUFACTURED TOBACCO. 
Investigations of factory conditions show that during the process 
of manufacture tobacco is, in many cases, thoroughly sterilized by 
heat. In one factory, in which experiments with different stages of 
the beetle were conducted, the tobacco was subjected to a temperature 
of 180° F. as it passed through the driers. This degree of heat has 
been found to destroy all stages of the beetle quickly, and is suffi- 
ciently high to sterilize tobacco thoroughly under any ordinary con- 
ditions. Tobacco may become infested before it leaves the factory, 
but it is evident from the usual condition of the tobacco which is 
returned with complaints of infestation, and from the time required 
for development of the beetle, that much of this tobacco becomes 
infested after it leaves the factory. 
It is not unusual to find badly infested material in wholesale and 
retail establishments in the same room used for storing fresh stock. 
The grubs or larve of the tobacco beetle are very minute when 
hatched, and at this stage are most active and readily find their way 
through small openings in the boxes or containers. In containers 
sealed perfectly tight at the factory it is very unusual to find the 
tobacco injured. 
In order to determine whether or not newly hatched larve could 
find their way into uninfested boxes used by different firms for pack- 
ing smoking tobacco, experiments were made at Richmond, Va., and 
at Tampa, Fla. The boxes of tobacco were thoroughly sterilized 
by heat and then put in sealed jars in which eggs of the tobacco 
beetle were placed at frequent intervals. The boxes were sufficiently 
tight to exclude partly grown larve and the adult beetles, but all 
showed openings along the edge of the cover and at the hinge of the 
hd large enough to admit newly hatched larve. In the experiments 
16 boxes were used and of these 12 boxes became infested after a 
time whereas none of the control boxes showed the least sign of 
infestation. In other experiments it was found that some of the 
larve hatching from eggs placed in empty boxes of the same kind 
escaped through even the smallest openings along the edges of the 
cover or at the hinges of the boxes. 
CASING CIGAR TOBACCO IN A DECOCTION OF TOBACCO STEMS. 
Soaking tobacco stems in water from 12 to 24 hours gives a solu- 
tion which is said to hasten fermentation of leaf tobacco. Several — 
cigar manufacturers, both in this country and in Cuba, have re- 
