The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1904-02-05
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES.

w e Ioar LIaC some one las U6eu StulI- |
ing the GAINESVILLE Gazette editor with a |
good deal OF information about tobacco |
that is not true, especially the "promi-
nent eastern tobacco man" who is quoted |
as saying wisconsin filters have the fin |
est favor of any domestic filler known, |
and the present 1908 crop contains the
best quality of ground leaf filler, similar,
if not equal to the imported Havana
filler. Much has been said and written
derogatory of Wisconsin filters, and L
think some one who knows should take
the matter up to set the growers right.
The soil of the state is particularly
adapted to the growth of filler stock.
Dealers for years have found lucrative
markets for Wisconsin filters and they
placed them on the market as Wisconsin
H's. Packers rehandled them and sold
them at great margins. In fact Wiscon-
sin tobacco is the best selling on the
market as it can be depended upon as
the best burner produced. Most of the
eastern factories use Wisconsin filters
for the body of their best brands OF
! smoke" Such statements look we'll in
print but so devoid of truth as to be-
! come almost ridiculous. We imagine
we hear any well posted tobacco man
smile audibly at being told that Wiscon-
sinlground leaf filler is equal in quality
to the imported Havana fller,' or that
dealerssar are packing the ordinary filters
of this state and palming them off on
| the manufactures as rehandled Wiscon-
| sin BIS. The average reader need not be
told the unpleasant fact that more than
so per cent. of the 1902 filters went
wrong in the cure, either rotting or be-
1 coming musty, so that every packer who
carried them through the summer pock
iteted loss on his investment, to show
4 how utterly foolish such assertions as
i the above are. If Wisconsin filters are
| such good thing to speculate 10, why
are buyers offering but enc cent for the
filters of the new crop and urging the
growers to keep them instead of selling
at that price? What farm is in the mar
ket looking for new filters, anyway?
*.* Asfs.
= If you ask dealer for an empty csgar
box and he takes hammer and smashes
the lid in before handing it to you, don't
take it sas an insult. You would likely
meet with the same treatment af you
called at every place in the city where
cigars are sold. Under the old revenue
law it was sufficient if the dealer merely
scratched the revenue stamp so that it
could not be used again. After he had
destroyed the stamp he could give the
boxes away But under a newruling
the box must also 4oe destroyed, so that
it will be impossible for it again to be
used for cigars. Cigar boxes are handy
little reeeptacles and great MANY bust
ness men use them for filing away clip
pings or papers that they wish to keep
for future reference. Now if they get
them at4all it will he without lids.
Tfe result of the tobacco trusts con-
troll of the tobacco situation in Ken
lucky is illustrated by the determination
,of'68 per, cent. of the tobacco growers of
| Webster county to plant no tobacco in
190a. An agreementsto that effect was
signed at lDixon last week, made effective
on coalition that 10 per cent. of growers
of the dark crop ratify it. 1t covers the
production of dark" eor Green River to-
bacco, which finds its market mostly
I oh P,1x Of fhaf Sf hox cfo rto
| out to purchase the coming crop at S.
/ per hundred for good and S1.5O for lugs.
\ 1t is admitted by growers that at S6 and
,S2 respectively, there is bare diving
profit in raising the crop, but they claim
! that the new price shutssoff any induce
,ment to faise the weed. The trust peo-
pile point .out on the other hand that the
foreign stocks are supplied two or three
years in advance of the demand, and
| that therefore the over production has
| made the price for the next crop accond
ing to the well known law Of supply and
/ demand. The movement to limit the
/ dark crop In kentucky will be watched
with interest.
La a paper read before the Seneca
Farmers Instiknte by Howard p. Mitch
ell. Crawford county grower. honest
| dealing is urged in the sale of the crop.
He says: Whether the crop is sold be-
fore stripping or not, bear in mind that
clean, honest job of stripping and bal
ing always pays, and will help to lessen
| the feeling SO common between buy
ers and growers at delivering time. A
buyer cannot be expected so pay the
same for dirt and trash, or wet, frozen
and damaged tobacco, that he contract
ed to pay for good, clean tobacco. The
| most satisfactory plan of selling for both
buyer and grower is in the bundle. The
quality and condition of the leaf can be
judged better, the grower knows what |
he has to sell, the buyer knows what he
is going to get, and consequently bet |
ter feeling will exist between them A |
few acres of tobacco on every farm that |
has suitable conditions for raising it, |
have been mortgage-lifter, and house |