Reconditioning Tobacco.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 57, Issue 3, 20 September 1938, Page 256

Reconditioning Tobacco.

Tobacco Notes.

WHEN tobacco is flue-cured in the farmers’ kilns near to the plantation where it is grown it is too dry and brittle to sort or grade, and it is therefore packed in stacks on the sticks as it hangs in the kilns. This is called bulking down. While in the bulks the colours improve, green side-veins disappear, green tints and discolorations fade away, and the true colours are established.. Tobacco remains in the , bulks for anything from two to three months, and during this time, which is always the wet winter months, the tobacco absorbs moisture from the air and becomes soft and ' pliant, is easy to handle without breaking, and will stand pulling out

flat, &c. When in this state the grading of the leaf into the various grades set by the manufacturing purchaser is undertaken. If the weather is very cold the leaf will not absorb so much moisture, but if warm rains or early spring conditions occur the tobacco attracts far too much moisture, and, as usually happens towards the end* of the grading season, it will contain from 20 per cent, to 24 per cent, of moisture. Moisture Content. ; . To be packed for export, or for storing in New Zealand, tobacco must not contain more than 12 per cent moisture ; otherwise it will overheat- in the packages and be spoilt by a sour smell, by yellow

moulds, and, if nothing is done to prevent it, spontaneous combustion may destroy the package by fire. Reconditioning tobacco is the business or commercial method of extracting the surplus moisture . (or, as it is usually called, farmers’ moisture) above 12 per cent, so that the tobacco may improve, and by the correct fermentation eliminate all the excess nitrogenous matter. Fermentation of nitrogenous matter produces a protein, which further ferments, producing, starch, starch ferments, ■ and sugar. ‘ This is the chemical ' action that is desired in all - good, sound, smoking tobacco, and that fermentation is governed by the amount of moisture that

the package of tobacco contains. If the tobacco is too wet, fermentation is too fast, and cannot be stopped. If moisture is too scanty, say 8 per cent., no fermentation takes place, and the tobacco makes no improvement but retains all the nitrogenous evils, and will burn with the smell of old rags. The owner will have to resort to the addition of essences and burning flavours to hide the immaturity of the tobacco. This can be done to the satisfaction of the smoker, but the non-smoker or the smoker who is not smoking can detect the evil smell, in spite of rose, musk, and tonkin bean. ... ■-

Process of Fermentation.

None of these ingredients is allowed to be added to tobacco smoked in England, and the tobacco must be landed there in a package weighing 875 lb. to 900 lb., 4 ft. high, with a diameter of 4 ft. This is called a tierce, and, if the moisture content is from 11 per cent, to 12 per cent., the’ correct fermentation will commence twenty-four hours after packing and continue on and off, getting less and less, until in two years it has ceased altogether. The package will keep good and sound from eight to ten years. We have tobacco sixteen years old, sweet and sound (air-cured) and flue-cured tobacco packed in W. H. Owen’s barn in 1928.

These facts have been known to American tobacco packers for many years, with the result that several machines have been made and used for the reordering or reconditioning of tobacco. The machine which has survived the test of time and become the universal favourite in America was made by the Proctor Schwash Tobacco Machine Co., of Philadelphia, and tobacco treated by this machine is called “proctorized ” tobacco, and is accepted by English manufacturers as the best pack. In 1935-36 the writer visited many tobacco-factories in England, and everywhere manufacturers claimed that only “ proctorized ” tobacco would keep sound in England. The Minister of Finance, the Hon. Walter Nash, caused exhaustive inquiries to be made into the . matter. An evaporator plant was under examination, but was turned down as not being up to the required standard. ■ ,■ Improving New Zealand Tobacco. In November, 1937, 'the Government bought, a .Proctor' Schwash tobaccomachine. It . was bought not because the growers wished : for it, but because the Government knew it was needed if export tobacco was to be successful. It will put our export tobacco on a level with the world's best packs. We know the leaf is good, and the method of the

steam humidore was the only weak spot in our pack. New Zealand tobacco, -when “ proctori zed,” will be '. equal” to anything in London. I have had the privilege of supervising the dismantling of the machine in Auckland, packing it in 173 packages, sending to Motueka Bacon Factory, designing the Export Tobacco Bond Store, and assisting the Public Works Department in the erection as clerk of works in an honorary capacity. The works were officially opened by the Hon. P. : Webb and Government officials on the 25 th July, but leaf had been received on the 18th July, ... ' Six .weeks were required to dismantle the machine and pack it. Eight weeks

were spent in rebuilding the Proctor machine, but this work could not commence until the cement floor 154 ft. long and 80 ft. wide was laid and set hard, so that growers having export tobacco; had to wait longer than , was desired. This, however, allowed for all leaf under contract to manufacturers to be supplied first, and the export tobacco bond store is the only one operating at the present time, with a staff of fifty girls and six men. A description of the working of the Proctor machine will be continued next issue. .

-Charles Lowe,

Tobacco Instructor;

Motueka.