The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1904-03-18
WISCONSIN TOBACCO.
Address of Thos H. Bigger Before Students of agrcut
tura Department State University.


Fifty years ago the Pomeroy brothers,
Ralph, Orrin and William, settled on ad-
joining farms in the town of Fulton,
Rock county, and grew ten acres of to-
bacco William Il. Pomeroy, the only
surviving member of the three brothers,
who were the pioneer growers of Wis
consin and Ohio, has watched the growth
OF the industry from that small begin
ming of ten acres to the 10000 acres
grown in the season of 1903. From that
small beginning in Rock county the in
dustry spread to seventeen other coun-
ties of the state. In Dane county one
acre in every tifty-six produces tobacco.
Many trials of growing tobaccos for
different purposes have been made in
the past fifty years with more or less
success, but today Wisconsin is known
to the tobacco world as the binder
state" A cigar is composed OF filler,
or the inside filling, the binder, which
binds these together, and the wrapper, or
outside covering Very few high grade
domestic cigars have anything but the
Wisconsin binder. AS we stated, many
changes have taken place in the quail
ties of Wisconsin tobacco. We have
grown the filler, the binder and the
wrapper, but time and experience have
shown that our great fort lies in the pro-
duction of high grade binder
The promoters of every line OF busi-
ness should have an ideal for which to
strive. Now an ideal crop for binder
purposes is one in which the leaves are
sound, spready, similar in shape and the
veins smooth small and colored the
same as the leaf. In texture the leaf
should be grainy and yet have suffi-
cient quantity of oil to insure proper
amount of fermentation, When it is on
the cigar it must burn we'll and have an
aroma which at least is not detrimental.
At least four things are necessary to
obtain these results-favorable climatic
! conditions, proper soil we'll fertilized,
| pure seed, and proper handling.
Man can do little to change climatic
! conditions in Wisconsin,, but by good
| Judgment some men manage their work
| SO that they get better results, under ad-
verse circumstances, than their neigh
| bors, Much has been said and written
! about how to care for the crop under
| different weather conditions, but my Ob-
servation has been that the men who
keep up with their work get the best re-
| suits. However, there is vast field for
study and demonstration in the growing
and curing under different conditions.
| The remark is often made that tobac-
| CO is a bad crop for the farm. In
measure this is true, for farmers make
| the mistake of putting all the barn-yard
manure from an eighty acre farm on the
same seven or eight acres Of tobacco
land year after year and try to grow corn
and other grain on the remainder of the
| farm. This is mistake in more ways
| than one. Barn-yard manure alone is
not what produces the best quality, but
it is when used in connection with COM
mercial fertilizers that the best is OBJ.
tanned. By the use of fertilizers more
manure could be spared for the other
crops, or by using luguminous plants to
aid in keeping up the farm, judicous
| use of the farm manure, and a liberal
| purchase of fertilizers, more and better
| tobacco could be grown and at the same
| time the other part of the farm could be
kept under high state of cultivation.
| Sugar beets, which many are rushing
into, while it is good paying crop, is
much more exhausting to the soil than
| tobacco. An average crop of tobacco re-
moves from the soil 80 pounds of nitro
| gen, 1O2 pounds of potash and % pounds
of phosphoric acid. An average crop of
sugar beets removes ITO pounds of nitro
gen, 1875 pounds of potash and 40 pounds
of phosphoric acid. Comparing the two,
the beets remove 2l pounds more of nj
trogen, SO pounds more potash and II
| pounds more phosphoric acid.
The following interesting figures,
| which were given me last summer by
| VIM. Clark of GAINESVILLE while [ was
| there looking over the experiments with
tobacco which were being conducted by
| the University, will prove that tobacco
is paying crop. In nineteen consecu-
tive years, commencing in 1882; he grew
| total of ll6 acres. for which he receiv-
ed SIT, ,385, or about $3.50 per acre. He
always grew the one variety known as
Spanish. In 1884 be sold acres which
brought S2,440, or 5305 per acre, and one
year he sold for cents per pound, or
about $50 per acre.
The most serious drawback to the
grower here is that he don't get enough
for his labor, and the reason he don't is
because lie don't produce the goods that
command the price. We have the soil
and climate necessary for good quality
of tobacco, but there is an awful lack of
intelligent fertiliZing. There is nothing
which men can do that will produce the
quantity and quality like intelligent, sys-
tematic fertilizing. But let the grower
be approached in regard to investing in
commercial fertilizers and he is most
sure to say that it costs too much; that
he has got along in the past and can in
the future. This idea of being unwilling
to invest dollar and get out Of the old
rut is serious matter for the future of
Wisconsin tobacco. The science of to-
bacco fertilizing is much further advanc-
ed in the Connecticut River valley than in
any other section. They get larger yields
than any place else in the United States.
When our tobacco yields 1900 pounds
per acre on an average, theirs yields 140O
pounds. When we are getting 5 to 8
cents Per pound, they get Is to 26 cents.
In the past few years many of the
growers have tried to get big yield by
growing coarse, large variety. To my
positive knowledge there are no less than
seven different types of tobacco here
when there should be but one standard
variety. Some of these types have good
points which others have not. The
blond;po IF the 0ood unaIitiac in aaoh On