The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1904-09-16

than to tobacco remaining in the fields
unharvested. This statement simply re-
calls the fact that in this latitude to-
bacco has the best of the argument in
almost any kind of unreasonable wealth
er conditions.
***
We note with considerable pleasure
the active opposition of the U. S. Tob.
Journal to the free entry of Philippine
tobacco to the markets of this country
and the arguments employed read very
much like good protection doctrine. The
Journal is now on the right track and to
be consistent it will henceforth cease to
advocate any reduction of duty on either
Sumatra or Cuban leaf and pull down
it's banner calling for uniform Qower)
rate on imported tobacco, which it has
been carrying so long.
***
The expert at curing is always careful
to open the barn doors and Stats for am
pie ventilation during the bright, dry
days. the first few weeks after the leaf is
hung. These experts are equally care
full to close up the barn at this season
during muggy nights, or when there is
much humidity in the air. To keep out
the nights dampness, and to get rid of
accumulated evaporation of moisture in
the tobacco barn during bright, dry
days is the first step toward good cure.
Yet how often even is this fundamental
precaution neglected. Then the careless
farmer wonders at pole sweat. There is
no excuse for this neglect in good wealth
er. In bad weather. that is, when there
is much rain or muggishness, with very
little sunshine or circulation Of air, while
the leaves are still comparatively green
in the barn, is a condition that every in
telligent tobacbo planter breads. If this
condition continues any great length of
time, there is great danger of pole sweat
or fat butts. If this danger becomes
acute, it can be practically guarded
against by artificial heat and artificial
draft. Open the cupola or doors in the
peak, or make openings in peak and
under the caves; then admit air at the
bottom. The heat will form current
that will gradually drive off the air
within the barn, which is laden with the
evaporated moisture from the leaves. Of
cot -, in good, bright, dry weather this
precaution is not needed, but for lack of
it in prolonged wet weather much leaf is
ruined. The amount of heat must be
regulated with great care so as not to
overdry or bake the leaves. The latter
risk can be reduced to minimum COM
pared to the danger from pole sweat in
prolonged muggy weather. Hang burlap
to protect tobacco in sheds where the
door is missing, or where the leaves may
be wind whipped Or scorched by the
afternoon sun. Every little precaution
like this should be taken to insure the
cure of good crop.
Xxx
The big tobacco trust, profting by the
court decision in the Northern Securities
case, are arranging to get under cover
by consolidating all the constituent COM
panies under one great concern in fact,
instead of an indirect ownership of Sc
curity holdings. A New York dispatch
says: The stockholders of constituent
companies of the corporation known as
the tobacco trust are asked to ratify the
action of the directors of these compan-
les, and there is little doubt that that
ratification will be secured. That means
that some time in the fall what is now
the securities holding corporation, in one
sense true trust, for it is trust in fact
if not in name or legally, will abandon
that relation to the constituent compan-
les and will become itself the active di-
rect corporotion, not merely the owner
of, but the perfectly merged body into
which have passed all the other corpora
tions. Another lesson furnished by this
request to the stockholders of the vari-
GUS tobacco corporations for vote is
this, that sometimes the common stock
does have an unexpected Of unsuspected
value. In much that has been written
in the last four or five years of the pro-
motion of mergers and great corpora
tions it has been assumed that the pre-
ferred stock represented actual values
and the common stock prospective, ul-
innate, a sort of vague, future earning
power which some day the securities
markets would recognize. But one of
the constituent companies, that one en-
gagged in the manufacture of plug tobac-
co chiefly, and whose largest factories
are in st. Louis, was promoted on the
basis of S37,000,O00 of preferred stock,
upon which the dividend was to be at
the rate of per cent, and S37 100000 of
common stock. The common stock, it
was presumed, was of no particular
value, or at least of no immediate value,
but might be found some day worth
possessing. It has SO happened, how
ever, that the profits of this corporation
have been great enough to enable it to
pay 16 per cent dividends upon the COM
mon stock as we'll as per cent upon the
preferred No wonder that little or none
of this common stock finds it's way to
the general market. Therefore, in one
case at least, the promotion of a merger
and the issuing of large amount of
what seemed to be watered stock was,
nevertheless, from the earning point of
view, entirely justifable. The PROPOSE
ton now before the stockholders of these
tobacco corporations does not involve
any corporate extension of the monopoly
so far as it is monopoly in the making
and marketing cf various products of
the tobacco plant. The plan is essen
TALLY piece of financing, and not one in |
which the public is especially interested.