The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1900-06-22
THE
Wisconsin Tobacco Reporter,
Edgerton. Wisconsin.
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES.
.dgerton,

the crop. Much of the tobacco OF re-
cent planting has been burned out dur
in the week and it is question whether
it can be replaced in the fields should
the drouth be broken soon. A good
smart shower passed over this locality
Thursday morning that will offer tenn
porary relief to limited section at least.
But good soaking rains of a general ma
ture are absolutely essential to complete
the planting and give anything like an
average start of the crop. These must
come soon also to accomplish this result.
Other crops are also suffering from
moisture.
***
This paper has so often spoken of the
dangers of overproductiOn OF the cigar
leaf tobacco crop, there seems but little
it could add in warning. The growers so
seldom pay much heed to what is said or
printed in this direction that it seems
like hopeless task to attempt to int1u-
uence production. Nothing, save actual
experience, will effectually curtail acre
age. However, the situation is so aptly
presented in the following from the U.
S. Tobacco Journal, we feel justified in
reproducing it in this connection:
Our reports of all cigar leaf growing
states are alike-to the effect that in
nearly every county the acreage Of tobac-
co has been increased. Our cigar leaf
growers have enjoyed for the past three
years very prosperous times and received
more for their crops than at any time
during the last fifteen years. Besides,
during each of the past three years they
sold their crops clean out, and nobody
lad to carry over his crop into the next
season. Naturally, they feel stimulated
to expand their acreage without giving
it a thought whether the prospective
conditions will not justify rather con
strictlOn than an expansion. We would
like to wager anything that not one to-
hacco farmer in thousand has ever be-
come conscious of, or tried to study and
analyze, the causes of his prosperity. OF
course, in general way, he will ascribe
SIS to the good times in general, or to the
gold standard, or to the party in power,
or to the tariff. A grain of truth may be
in all this, and no doubt the revival of
the prosperous times, by stimulating not
only a larger consumption of cigars, but
also of better quality of cigars effected
a larger consumption of cigar leaf, too.
But that alone would not have cleared
off SO thoroughly the stock of domestic
leaf that had accumulated for years, both
in the hands of the farmers and packers,
and caused such marked advance in
the price of domestic crops The chief
cause was the Cuban insurrection,
which caused the issuance of the ia
nous Weyler embargo edict and ulti-
mately the Spanish American war.
In the year previous to the issuing of
the Weyler edict the consumption of Ha
vana leaf has risen to 10000 bales, or
about sixteen million pounds, per year.
1t dropped in the year of the war to
$4,000 bales, while our cigar industry
was in the meanwhile increasing with
rapid strides. The cigar industry had to
use thirteen to fourteen nailEiOn pounds
OF other than Havana leaf, and the ac
cumulated old domestic filler stock came
in handy. With the old stock gone, the
farmer had an easier market for his new
crop, and could insist on advanced prices.
Hence the good times for the Pennsyl
vania, Ohio, State and Wisconsin tobac-
co raiser. But not the Havana filler
alone, but also the Havana wrapper leaf
had to find some kind of substitute,
and some clear Havana manufacturers
took fancy to the Connecticut broad
leaf.
But the conditions that caused this
change are rapidly disappearing. Cuba
is again raising it's normal quantity of to-
bacco, and though the prices are still
very stiff and forbid the use of any Ha-
vana leaf in nickel cigars, there will be
plenty for all seed and Havanas and
clear Havanas With plentiful Hava-
ma crop, the substitution of the new Con-
necticut broad leaf for Havana wrappers
will become thing of the past, mere |
historical record. And the use of the |
domestic filler leaf will decrease in pro- |
portion to the increase of the reuse of |
the Havana leaf. With such prospects |
in view, the wisdom of the expansion of |
our cigar leaf area becomes somewhat |
problematical, and the more it is ex-
panded, the more Oppressive effect it |
sill have on the price. 1t can, therefore, /
be predicted with almost mathematical |
precision that the prosperity of our CT |
gar leaf growers is endangered by their
in0onsiderate attempts at overproduction.
***
The advantages of frequent cultivation
Of the tobacco fields is told by an eastern
grower of experience as follows;
We have always had the plants to start
into vigorous growth better if cultivation
was begun soon after being set. Some
years ago the idea was prevalent among
growers that the plants must "become
in the soil, or in other words,
begin to grow, before the work was be-
gun, but now our best growers start the
cultivators running as soon as is prac-
5icable after setting.
The use of the hand hoe cannot be dis
pensed with by the man who wants to
make the most rapid growth possible in
he shortest time. The first hoeing
closely follows the use of the cuItivator
he second time, and is not as thorough
IS the main or second hoeing, it being
he usual plan to simply fill up between
he hills with loose earth. After the first
loeing the cultivator is again run be-
ween the rows and in perhaps 10 days
he main hoeing is best done. II