The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1901-07-05
TIE
Wisconsin Tobacco Reporter,
Edgeton, Wisconsin.
NOTE ROOK SKETCHES,

as STtdt QodI OIL ldUOr Has Uoou lOSG III
attempting to transfer plants from the
beds to the fields during the extreme
heat of the past week. With the ther-
mometer ranging above 80 for number
of consecutive days, it seems like the
height of folly to attempt to make to-
bacco plants survive transplanting, and
wherever growers haye continued this
work during the week it has been at
tended with failure. The hot, parching
winds have burned up the plants and
left the fields with such poor stands as
to require as mich labor in resetting as
to replant the entire fields by the ma
chine. Much of the land planted last
week has been refitted and the farmers
will try again when the conditions are
more favorab BILE. The only safety in times
like these lies in waiting. Keep the
beds alive and suspend planting opera
tions until the heated term has past.
Fortunately the greater bulk of the
crop was out and safely rooted before
the extreme weather came which has
survived the ordeal. The anxiety of
growers to complete the work of trans
planting has prompted many to continue
the work hoping the hot spell would not
continue so long. But lesson has been
taught not soon to be forgotten in the
losses that have occurred this season.
~
The losses sustained by the tobacco
growers in Vernon county this week in
the destruction of tobacco sheds by Sc
we're storms, calls to mind that the sea-
son of heavy winds is again at hand.
The damage tobacco farmers sustain
every year by the blowing down and un-
roofing of curing sheds, must amount to
a good many thousand dollars through
out the state. During the summer
while these buildings are light and
empty they present broad surfaces to a
storm and are easily moved from their
foundations and broken and demolished.
The growers have by experience learn
ed that their curing barns must be more
strongly constructed and firmer braced
and the posts securely anchored to with
stand the usual summer storms.
The builders of new permanent sheds
now take notice of all these requirements
and better class of buildings are tax
ing the place of the the curing sheds o1
few years ago. Until this transforma-
tion takes place the loss to tobacco
growers will continue to cut consider
able figure every year.
***
Fully 4Oa of tobacco are said to be
set under a cheesecloth covering this
year in various parts of the Connecticut
and Housatonic valleys, says the N. E.
Homestead. One of the fields which has
tion is that of c.. S. Miller & Son of
Southwick, Mass. The Millers are old
time growers of some of the best tobacco
raised in that town, which each year
raises over 2OOa of the weed. They un-
derstand the business thoroughly from
the growers standpoint and are thor
oughly up to the times as to the best
methods to pursue.
The tobacco is part Havana and part
imported Sumatra seed. Plants are too
small to show distinctly in the interior
view. They are set in rows 3 #. in.
apart and plants II in. apart in the row.
The piece under cloth is 36x415 rods.
For an acre of ground, 1872 posts II #.
long are used, which are see in the
ground 3 it,, leaving 9 ft. clear. Posts
are set 1619 #. apart each way. About
1000 tt. of 2x4 scantling are used as
stringers. These go lengthwise of the
field, as shown by the interior view. No
cross pieces are usen except at the ends.
No. 9 and IA wire are strung across the
frame every it., strained very tight,
making the frame solid. Eight-inch base
boards are put around the piece f..
from the outside posts for the side cloth
to be fastened to. The cloth is of coarse
weave and much stronger than that used
at the ct exper plot at Poquonock last
year. Cloth is 161a #. wide and fastened
to the stringers by wire running
lengthWise and stapled to the frame. No
wires are used over the cloth.
Mr.. Miller estimates the cost to be
about $500 p a. Cloth costs about 18O
wire is inexpensive, about 7 p a and the
cost of frame depends whether the grow
er furnishes his own material or buys it
at the lumber yard. The frame is good
for s or 10 crops and perhaps two-thirds
of the cloth may be used the second
year. Raising Havana seed under cloth
is perhaps more of an experiment than
raising Sumatra. Havana may not be as
profitable, but the increased weight a
will help balance the difference in price
paid p 10.
~
The Philadelphia Tobacco World is
confident that the consumption of tobac-
co and cigars will not decrease, whatever
combinations of capital may be formed,
nor whatever one or more dealers may
think about such towering organiza-
tions. That determines the question of
tobacco will be purchased.
With an increasing trade purchases must
be enlarged to meet the demand, and
business must be, upon the whole, on
larger scales than it has been heretofore
1t is not, therefore, an unmixed evil;
nor, on the other hand, is it an unmixed
blessing. While arguments. are easily
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