The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-04-26

pertY namable has suffered Staguati0n
/ and a corresponding decline. There
4 the tenant and tobacco curer without
i cash or credit. or land or house, con
/ tent to 60 barefooted four or five years
/ back, is to-day i'm many cases the own
/ er Of his own acres, implements, a home
I and outhouses, humble, though some
| may be, vet are full of rich food stores
and stocks with something ahead of
taxes laid up for rainy day, and 10
! mortgages if any, that can't be met
around these people, still too many
] unlettered people perhaps have grown
up from the yellow clad tobacco fields,
| towns Of such marvellous growth as
Wilson, Rocky Mount, Greenville,
/ Louisburc. and RoxbOro, etc, with
| banks and ample deposits to mutu-
ally sustain the business man and the
/ planter. The merchant has quad
4 rupled his stock in stores. In place
of the $3.50 stitch down or brogan or
/ the cheap split leather woman's shoe
/ of which few were sold a few years
4 ago, when cotton was alone king and
/ kept many poor, and the plantation
/ mortgaged, we see with the diversity
of tobacco culture the separation of
| the general country town store into
/ separate and distinct stores. A hoe
| store on its own merits and a clothing
and dry goods store has customers to
| sustain these special lines, and therein
is variety good and growing selections
/ to keep pace with demand of
/ the people prosperous and able
i to pay for better things of fashionable
/ tastes and dates. Debtor to bright
/ tobacco are many of the fine
4 farms. stocks and the town improve
ments which we see in the new tobacco
belts, while tobacco has the leader
4 ship of all farm products in paying
| qualities. Not to lose this prestige,
not to progress. means that we should
all the time be studying every inn
provement possible to make Spread
4 of acreage is not what is really reed
ed. There is too much tendency that
way now. There are big preparations
in North Carolina and South Carolina
to-day for the 1896 crop; the fever
spreads early and rapidly, Let no one
attempt more than he is fully able
to attend to. Every pound Of common
tobacco made debases the better to-
bacco sold.
In the olden times OF Virginia the
common tobacco unfit for export was
burnt up at the planters expense, later
on it was branded ''refused"--if not mp
to standard Tt would be much bet
ter to-day if we had such inspections
to maintain a high standard, rather
than ruinously run down one estab-
Hshed. Let it be also remembered
that the nearer q planter comes to
perfect chasing and grading at home,
the better his tobacco will sell on the
warehouse floor. 1t requires a clear
eve for colors to match crop right.
and this is what manufacturers are
Just as particular about az a woman
is in matching dress colors and trim
minqs. Uniformity in the plug is
needful; the consumer expects to get
the same color and quality in the same
brand always. The planter may as
sumo one leaf to be as good as another,
but the order buyers factories win show
( . Reconsideration that would astonish
the planter, and If the latter followed
his tobacco up to the plug factory
and saw his wrappers again re-sorted
he would at once see the Importance
Of close classification, as 70 color, size,
! texture ktGiAEIb11Ia13 49, -
The dissimiiarity of tobacco leaves
and different crops of tobacco IS pro-
verbal, but just here the wise distlnc-
ton Of grading comes in as a paying
property OF leaf tobacco. There is
much in the texture Of tobacco the
heavy bodied tobacco is not the best
or the str0ngest--it is the tough, tieXi-
BILE, silky, and soft yelvety full medium
size leaf Of lemon or orange color that
pays best. or highest values. just now
! it is true that mahoganies are most ln
demand: the temporary cause being
the rivalry anong factories for stand
ard brands Of plug using rich dark
mahogany: grades very scarce IN tie
1895 crop, and destined to be in de
mand in the 1896 crop; these may be
made best on rich low land OF
more body than that used for bright
wrappers. Common wrappers sold
wei In 1865 because Of cut prices on
common plug, q sort requiring heavy
pressure on the wrapper The finer
| grades Of wrappers are less In demand
because of the fine grades of plug be-
/ less sold or salable by virtue of the
/ increased output Of common COMPETE
ton cut-price plug. The same cause
and effects pertain TO cutters; the finest
1 grades, notwithstanding newly opened
competition and war against the To
| baeco Trust, are less high for six
months past, while the good and me-
/ dium grades are much higher than
six months ago: the bulk Of the latter
selling relatively highest, more than
offsets the decline in the lesser quanti-
! ty of fine cutters. The competition is
| over the common and medium grades
/ Of cigarettes and the demand for me-
! dunn cutters grew stronger and prices
went higher.
Though we do not know what a day
may bring forth, yet the outlook is de-
eidedly good for our 1896 crop if it be of
fine quality The cigarette and plug
war may end in consolidation of both
! factions, and a greater monopoly than
/ ever must ensue. 4 compromise may
| be effected, and the Trust 20 on fight
| ing only the smaller factories, but the
/ latter will soon have the advantage OF
released and expiring patents on Gig
arctic machines and other advantages,
which will cause many small leaf
and order cigarette factories TO start
up, and the buyers, 10 supply these,
| will again be as glad as ever to specu-
late, or buy on order, as rivals on all
markets. Tobacco crop statistics are
extremely important to the planter