The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1903-03-06
SUGAR AND TOBACCO.
Reduced Tarin Duties and the Inter-
ests of Domestic Producers.

ests OF Domestic Producers.
On the ID of December, the same day
on which congress received the presi-
dents message urging material re-
duction of duties on Cuban products,
the secretary of agriculture issued the
following statement;
1.-THE bureau of soils, which has been
engaged fo- number of years in in
vestigations looking to the improve
ment of our domestic tobaccos, has rec
ognized for some time certain desirable
qualities in tobacco grown in Texas,
which apparently occurred only in oc
casional leaves. Soil survey parties and
tobacco parties have been investigating
in east Texas and now are able to state
confidently that they have found the
soil type and the character of leaf pos
sessing these desired qualities under
conditions which indicate that it can be
produced in large quantities of uniform
high grade.
Samples have been submitted to
leaf dealers and brokers in New York
and Philadelphia. They say it is Gu
ban leaf, with the characteristic aro-
ma of the Cuban product. The depart
ment will send two survey parties to
Texas the 1st of January to press the
survey of the area containing this soil
and will enlarge the party of tobacco
experts so that fifteen or twenty acres
Of tobacco shall be grown under gov
eminent supervision, thus producing a
sufficient quantity to be handled on a
commercial scale. This will be submit
ted to the leaf dealers and manufac-
turers for opinions of the commercial
value of the crop before any encourage
ment is given to Texas growers"
They are trying to increase the
Texas area of high grade leaf growing
lands. They are trying to do the same
thing in Florida. In Connecticut and
other states, as we learn from the an
nual report of the secretary of agricul-
ture, they are trying to raise from SUI
matra seed better leaf than that
which is grown in Sumatr6 and to do
this they have at heavy expense erect
ed canvas awnings over several hun
dred acres of tobacco lands. What is
better still, they are succeeding so well
that the awning plan is to be largely
extended-that is, provided the grow
ing of domestic tobacco leaf for cigar
purposes continues to be profitable. The
same proviso will govern future opera
lions in Texas and Florida. The only
question is, Will it pay? If that ques-
ton is settled in the affirmative, Amer
lean enterprise and energy will do the
rest.
But will it pay to extend the area of
costly awnings in the northern fields
to continue the practical experimental
ton now going forward on a large
scale in Florida and to go on with the
soil survey project in Texas when by
the reduction of duties on competitive
leaf from Cuba, where the cost Of pro-
duction is very much less than in this
country, the market price of this home
grown tobacco shall have been forced
down 20, 80 or so per cent? If the plan
of Cuban reciprocity is going to be
forced through congress, Is not the Sec
rotary of agriculture throwing money
away in those Texas experiments?
The growing OF sugar beets and the
erection of beet sugar factories have
already experienced a serious setback
because Of Cuban reciprocity agitation.
Can the domestic industries of sugar
and tobacco growing be reasonably ex-
pected to enthuse over q scheme which
selects them and them only to bear the
entire burden Of reciprocity with Gu
ba? We have heard great deal about
the solemn obligation of insuring q
more profitable market to the growers
Of sugar and tobacco in Cuba. Why
do we hear so much about this and so
little about the solemn obligation of
insuring a more profitable market to
the growers of sugar and tobacco in
the United States? Why should our
solicitude be so active in behalf of for
eigners and so dormant as regards our
own agricultural workers? When these
friends and neighbors, who poll more
than seven-tenths of the total Repub-
lican vote, wake up to the fact that
their interests have been betrayed and
sold out in the name of q one sided and
an unjust reciprocity" what will they
do about it? Are we so much en-
crossed in concocting schemes for COB
bling up the whole of Cuba's trade
that we have no time to consider the
question of fairness and duty toward
our own people? 1t would seem SO.