The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1901-05-24

ed to ask what are the enterprising cltl-
zens of Waunakee, Readstown and Nc
Farland doing that they have not caught
it on the fly and held it for at least one
night stand. The tobacco center is a
nice thing to have boys, and don't let an
pass to nail it when it come
floating down your way. After it has
been passed around for while it will
settle down to remain just where it has
been located for the past quarter of a
century.
A new scheme for attracting the at
tention of tobacco trade is just been
evolved by the Forty Thousand club of
Madison which anticipates the estab
fishing of a public market for the sale of
leaf tobacco similar to the "breaks' of
Louisville, ETC., where the southern type
of leaf is sold. In favor of this plan it is
urged by it's promoters:
''The market proposed is to consist of
large warehouse where the farmers may
bring their tobacco after it has been cured
and by paying slight commission have
it sold at public auction. This would
necessitate the grading of the weed be-
fore it is sold, but it would also tend to
greatly Increase the confidence between
growers and dealers, which is not overly
strong at present owing to the practice
of buying and selling the crop before it
is harvested. During the growing season
the tobacco belt of Wisconsin is overrun
with agents of dealers who contract for
all the crops they can. The competition
among the dealers is SO keen that under
present conditions they must follow this
system If they want to get share of the
crops. Fortified with contract for the
sale of his product at a certain price, the
farmer does not always use proper care
in harvesting, and as result much of
the weed is cut too green or too ripe.
Thsn. when the grower brings the tobac-
co in for delivery the buyer finds it be-
how grade and repudiates his contract.
Dozens of large crops were rejected by
the buyers this season because they were
injured in harvesting or curing.
The scheme above outlined is not a
new one by any means. 1t has been
tried In some of the eastern cigar leaf
states and i'm every instance found to be
impractical. In the first place cigar leaf
is SO variable in it's character and so
many of.thegrowers are so unaccustomed
to preparing it for the cases that the
dealers much prefer to purchase their to-
bacco in the bundle and grade and han
die it themselves. Sales, too, made upon
the farm are in the southern states
where the warehouse plan of selling is in
practice, is generally more satisfactory,
and it certainly would be to Wisconsin
farmers because they are generally able
to realize on the crop at least six months
earlier than if put up at auction, after
being sorted and cased. It would, no
doubt, save lot of expense now
charged to the cost of buying, if dealers
could go to central point and buy their
packings of tobacco, all cased and graded
10y paying a small commission fee, but
that is not the way it is purchased in any
of the growing states and no new tangled
scheme is likely to be succe essfully estab-
lished to displace the old methods of
business right away either.
*x*
President Young in his address before
the Leaf Tobacco Board of Trade at it's
meeting in New York last week, reviewed
the experimental work the department
of agriculture was doing for the leaf to-
bacco industry, which he highly COM
mended. In closing he said:
After these facts became known to
your executive officers steps were taken
to have the department extend the work
to other tobacco growing states. The
house committee on agriculture recog-
nized the Importance of the work already
done, and appreciating the great benefit |
which must result to the leaf tobacco in
lustry of the United States, readily |
agreed to support the department by an
increased appropriation for this specific |
purpose. While this bill was in commit |
zee we were informed that the statutory |
INIT regarding salaries to the chiefs of |
divisions would interfere with the reten- |
ion of the men who were conducting |
his important work, as business men |
the ability possessed by these
nen were offering them larger salaries
han they were receiving from the gov
and that unless some change
vas made in the existing law the services
If these men would be lost to the govern
nent; therefore we decided to take an
lctive part in endeavoring to secure
rom congress the legislation necessary
o obviate the difficulty. and on Jan. 9
our executive officers appeared before
he committee on agriculture of the
louse of representatives, and made
,lain statement showing the value of the
york already done, the Importance to
ur industry of it's being continued. and
sked the committee to recommend to