The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1901-07-26
THE
wisconsin Tobacco Reporter,
Edgerton, Wisconsin.
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES.

NOTE BOOK SKETCHES.
We have entered now upon the fourth
week of prolonged drouth accompanied
by season of the most intense heat ever
experienced in this latitude. The grow
ing tobacco crop which has for some
weeks been suffering from the drouth
has now reached a point where it is
steadily being consumed by each days
burning heat. We have had seasons OF
drouth before during the growing OF a
tobacco crop, and instances where three
or four weeks have elapsed without rain,
and still fairly good crop obtained. 1t
is the long continued burning heat that
is scorching and shriveling up all vegi-
tation. The early set fields-those that
were we'll started before the drouth-do
not stand as good chance now of max
ing crop as that later transplanted
Where the plants have reached the
height of a foot or so they have been
forced to bud without any breadth OF
leaf and can scarcely be expected to
good portion of the medium set fields
are yet living and have stood up surpris-
ingly under the trying weather, but the
under leaves begin to curl up and
wither showing plainly they cannot much
longer survive the intense heat. Should
rains come soon the only hope of secur-
ing fraction of crop lies in this por-
ton of the planting. If the present con
ditions continue another week it can be
written down that the 1901 crop in the
great tobacco belt of this state will be g
complete failure. At this writing the
growers of Wisconsin are facing the
most discouraging prospect that has ever
confronted them.
Xxx
The chronological oracle of this local
ity, whose name is Frank Wescott anC
whose residence is at Albion, comedies
that the past few weeks drouth has beer
pretty trying on growing crops, but says
-"We raised tobacco crop in '94 without
a drop of rain on portion of it. That
season when the crop was transplanted
the ground was we'll loaded with mois-
ture, sufficient to carry the crop through
Some fields of tobacco that year never
had drop of rain fall on them from the
time the plants were set in the fields un-
til harvested and securely housed in the
shed, and we had tobacco that year, too.
There wasn't much binder stock in the
crop, to be sure, but it made some excel
lent b leaf just the same 1t is not SO
many years ago this happened growers
can think back and remember the situa-
tion he describes. The drouth came
then at the other end of the season and
not at the commencement as this year.
*.
From statistics at hand the N. Y. To-
bacco Journal has figured out that we
are the greatest tobacco nation on earth.
We are, and, for the past thirty five
years, have been the greatest producers
and consumers of tobacco in the world.
1t is proper to speak of the past thirty
five years because it is only since the
close of the Civil War that our tobacco
production and consumption have been
accurately tabulated each year by that
officer of the government who bears the
title of Commissioner of Internal Rev.
enue. The United States always has
been the great tobacco nation. 1t was
such in colonial times; it was such from
1776 to 1868, when the system of internal
revenue taxation was devised, and it will
always be such; but from 1865 down to
our day we know precisely just how
much tobacco we produce and how much
we consume, how much we send abroad
and how much we keep at home. The
total annual product of tobacco in the
United States, including the cigar leaf
varieties, is about 615,OOO,OOO pounds, of
which about 275,OOO,0O0 pounds are ex-
ported. In the manufacture of chewing
and smoking tobacco and snuff our man
utilize between 235,O0O,0OO
and 265,0OO,0OO pounds
$500 To Buffalo and Return $500,