THE CURING OF TOBACCO 24.5 
countries, although it will undergo a fermentation of a normal 
character, acquiring the chemical and physical properties which 
it develops in Cuba, does not acquire the flavor that it has in 
its own home. Cuban tobacco is now raised in the United States, 
but its flavor is inferior to that raised in Cuba. 
We have already noticed that in the ripening of cheese, though 
the enzymes are extremely important agents in the chemical 
changes going on, the bacteria are of chief importance in the 
production of the flavors. The fermentation of the tobacco by 
the oxydases does not satisfactorily explain the flavors. When 
Havana tobacco is fermented in the United States, it ferments 
normally, but does not develop the typical Cuban flavor. It is 
quite possible that this flavor is, after all, a matter of bacterial 
action. When the Cuban planter ferments his tobacco, he 
commonly sprinkles it 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 
