The relative humidity inside the warehouse was nearly identical at all three moni- 

 toring stations. The relative humidity range inside the warehouse throughout the year 

 was consistently between 40 and 60 percent (figs. 17-20). The daily average outside 

 relative humidity fluctuated widely; whereas, the warehouse relative humidity remained 

 more stable. The average outside relative humidity generally was over 60 percent, 

 but humidity was rarely this high inside the warehouse. 



Moisture in flue- cured tobacco increases during the first 2 or 3 years in storage 

 if moisture is between 10 and 11 percent when tobacco is prized. According to Dixon, 

 Darkis, Wolf, and others— the peak moisture gain coincides with the peak development 

 of natural aroma. Data from our study show that during the first year of storage, the 

 tobacco moisture in the hogsheads at the depths monitored increased from 0.6 to 2.9 

 percent (table 2). During the year, tobacco in each hogshead gained moisture. Mois- 

 ture content increased gradually and in a consistent pattern. Throughout the year, the 

 hogshead second from the top was lowest in moisture content. The hogshead third from 

 the top was consistently the highest in moisture content. However, if the moisture 

 gain for hogsheads in each of the four heights is averaged, the units with the highest 

 moisture gain are the hogsheads second from the top and on the bottom. The hogsheads 

 with the least gain are those that had the highest moisture level soon after being stacked. 

 The greatest moisture gain of any point monitored was at a depth of 12 inches in the 

 bottom hogshead. 



-'See footnote 2. 



28 



