The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1901-08-16
THE
Wisconsin Tobacco Reporter,
Edgerton. Wisconsin.
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES.

DONG Tie DoSC IL can uuucI IuO IiyihS
weather conditions that continue to pre-
vail. The tobacco belt of southern Wis
consin still remains under the shadow of
the most severe drouth that it has ever
experienced. The few rains that have
fallen brought but temporary relief at
best and the long looked for soaking
showers are yet to come. Cooler wealth
er has helped to allay some of the parch-
ing effects and the fields are making
some growth even on soils where appar-
emily there can be no moisture left. But
the growth in most cases is a narrow,
pinched leaf with disposition to bud
early that is seldom witnessed in Wis
consin tobacco. Another discouraging
feature is the lateness of the crop. Here
it is past the middle of August and fully
one-half the living tobacco has not yet
been topped. At least month or six
weeks immunity from frosts will be re-
quired to secure a harvest 1t seems
scarcely reasonable to suppose that frosts
will be that long delayed. If soaking
rains were to come now at this late day
the recently topped tobacco would in
crease some in size and improve in quail
ity, but we are past all hope of binder
crop in 1901.
~
Compared with the conditions that
prevailed year ago this date, the con-
trast is particularly discouraging. The
harvest then was well along by the mid
die of August and scarcely any of the
fields but had been topped at that date.
Buying had also been commenced in the
Vernon county district, while the crop
was only partially harvested. There but
few of the very early set fields that the
harvesting has yet been commenced,
while vast amount of topping is yet to
be done to say nothing of the fields that
will hardly be harvested at all unless the
fall is necessarily long. Tobacco has
been grown in the older sections of Dane
and Rock counties for the past forty
years, but we questionif if the farmers can
recall single season when the outlook
for the crop presented as poor show
ing. 1t is unq uestionably the nearest
thing to total failure ever seen and
there have been some poor crops grown
in the state before.
The usual early buying of tobacco in
the fields has again commenced in the
Connecticut Valley and as in late years
some excellent prices are being paid. A
late issue of The N. E. Homestead has
this comment on the transaction:
A great many sales have been made
the past two weeks at Suffield, Ct, the
largest and best tobacco growing town
of New England, at prices ranging from
20 to Csc in bdl. A few growere received
a small advance payment. The crop
bids fair to be a very fine one indeed.
The ruling price for good leaf should be
at least 25c and every choice crop in
Hartford county might have been sold
for that price, if growers would only CO.
operate in selling. The fact is, the trade
demands, is waiting for, and must have
light Ct Hav seed wrappers, and 25c in
bdl might have been secured if the first
sellers had held firm for that price.
The intimation that but small ad-
vances are being paid down and that no
written contract is entered into between
the buyer and seller, gives rise to the
suspicion that deals of this kind amount
to but little more than engaging the
crops If the tobacco turns out all right
there will probably be no trouble in de-
livering the goods when cured; if not,
then the buyer loses only his small ad-
vance. 1t is purely and simply an op-
ton which buyers are willing to pay for.
***
Those persons in the leaf and cigar
trade who have been sitting up nights
worrying about the removal of the tariff
from the products of Porto Rico have
had their trouble for their pains. There
isn't the slightest evidence that the trade
in either leaf tobacco or cigars will be
injured in the least. If Porto Rican
manufacturers had good cigars to export
it is safe assertion that they have been
coming here and have been sold in COM
petition with American cigars already.
What with short crops and other home
disturbances, there is little use of wor-
rying about the insignificant product of
the small island of Porto Rico. Even
Cuba would scarcely create ripple on
the surface of business in this great
country. The consumption increases so
fast and there is such an evident growth
in all directions that the worry caused
by the removal of the tariff in this par
ticular case seems folly. Raise good to-
bacco; make good cigars, and your fu
ture is assured, regardless of the situa-
tion in Porto Rico or even in Cuba
World.