The Durham recorder. [volume] (Durham, N.C.) 1879-19??, 1890-04-16
Why Loose Buyers are Paying
Nearly as Much for Bad as
Good Crops.
olArtsyIIle tTenn.l Lelf chropiele.

An esteemed Christian County
farmer, writing to the Leaf-Chronicle
on the Tobacco situation, throws out
the following hint On the idea Of
grow less Tobacco and make it bet~
ter" that We doubt not has much to
do with the production year after
year of big CROPS Of inferior sutf in
the exclusion OF the better. grades of
Tobacco. lie says: ave know that
the farmers ofmontgomery, Christian
and Logan counties are producers
Of fine Tobacco, aud 1t discourages
US when in my neighborhooI, and /
suppose it is the same elsewhere, we
see the loose buyers offsr for the
meanest within one cent ofwhat they
pay for the best crops in the neigh-
borhood One of my neighbors had
q line crop which be sold, tied IN
small hands and delivered in your
city in prizing order for 90. 25 An
other neighbor who had a crop, as
mean as old scratch, nearly tnree.
fourths Lugs, that he sold, tied in
large hands and in soft order, T,
$465. ] know Of numerous crops as
mean as could be that sold for four
cents, nearly as much as the best
brought.
"This does not apply to the pur-
chases Of any one man alone, but to
all Of them. So long as the loose
buyers do not make any distinction
between the poor and the good crops,
the farmers doa't care about raising
fine Tobacco"
IL is true, as Que esteemed corress
pondent says, buyers have not made
as much difference in the quality OF
Tobacco this season as the situation
would warrant, but there is q cause
for that, and the buyers are or will
be the sufferers in the matter. This
is the ease Of the laborer who entered
the Lords vineyard at the eleventh
hour and received as much wages as
the man who toiled all the day from
early morn for stipulated pay.
There are certain loose dealers
who are fine judges Of Tobacco, and
are on the lookout all the while for
the best crops. They enter the field
early, paying from seven to ten cents
for the best ciops. These figures we're
above the views Of the majority Of
buyers and they held off until the
fne crops were generally all sold.
Then IL developed that the average
yield was not 50 large as FIRST estimated.
This fact and the high figures for first
sales put considerable back bone in
the farmers, and those having inferior
crops hold up for stiff prices, and
dealers having already arranged for
a years business, we're stimulated to
advance their views, taking first sales
as basis fo= operations. The general
speculation in Tobacco Is a very un.
certain business, and buyers lose as
often as they make by il. Prices are
generally fxed by buyers who work
on large foreign orders for fine goods,
who know precisely what they are
doing, while others buying for the
general market take such figures fer
.heir guide, basing their judgment on
the supply aud the profitable advance.
There is no question that the farm
ers Of this section have been over-
cropping themselves with Tobacco to
the neglect Of other things, and with
all Of their efforts TO make o crop Of
fine Tobacco lest year. the product is
nearly, or quite half Lugs, and un'
less prices materially advance, loose
dealers will have q hard tine getting