The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1904-01-22
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES.

The buying of last. seasons tobacco
crop. which has again been resumed in
many of the growing sections of the
state, has at least one encouraging feat
ure in that it shows buyers are anxious
to secure the better selections of the
crop and in their impatience could not
wait even for casing weather to bring
the leaf into condition that they might
examine the goods they were trading in.
And this only interests the growers.
Between buying tobacco green in the
fields and hanging dry in the sheds there
is but little choice. No good defense of
the practice is even attempted by the
buyers indulging in it-except in the
present case lower prices are being paid
than earlier when bought green in the
fields. After all these years of expert
ence it would seem better business meth
DDS ought to prevail in the buying of the
tobacco crop. There is too much truth
in the statement well known packer
made in the hearing of the writer re-
Gently when he said that he knew of no
other business that was conducted on
such unbusiness like methods, and fail
ure would surely follow in any other line
of trade conducted under similar condi-
tions. While most of those engaged in
the trade are willing to admit the truth
of these statements, there is small hope
of reform.
The receivers Of the affairs of Sutter
Brothers, Inc, Eugene FL. Pearson and
William Riblack, of Chicago have taken
possession of the tobacco in certain
warehouses as part of the assets, and
this is opposed by the banks. The First
National, the heaviest loser by the failure,
has brought one suit in the circuit court
of Chicago for $150,000 and another to
recover S22500, for which it claims to
hold negotiable receipts It has been so
in nearly every case Tobacco stored in
warehouses in various cities was prompt
ly claimed by banks as collateral the
moment the failure was announced. The
liabilities, at first estimated at 81 100000,
are now estimated at $2,5O0,OOO, although
the amount owed to the wholesale to-
bacco trade is less than $4,000. The
number of banks among the creditors is
16S, which are said to be secured by col
lateral equal to not more than one
quarter of the Indebtedness. Fifty firms
or individuals, are stated to have been
driven into bankruptcy or seriously Grip
pied in sequence of the big failure.
*x*
The effect on the trade by the big fail
ures of the year is far-reaching and evi-
dence is cropping out all the time to
show that in the future more conserva-
tive methods will maintain in the tobac-
co business. Here is the opinion of a
New York merchant told to a trade ex-
change, revealing one of the embarass-
ments the trade is up against in the
East: Il spent a few days in the New
England tobacco sections last week, and
[ ran up against the bluest lot of people
that I have seen for many day. The
farmers have sold but little of sheir to-
bacco, for the reason that the crop is
poor one, and bankers have refused in
many cases to furnish funds to put up
packings. Unless the bankers exper-
ience a decided change of heart. many
of the smaller packers will be compelled
to retire from the field. The Sutter
failure gave the financial interests of
New England bad case of the frights,
from which it will require considerable
time to recover. One banker told me
that his institution had decided not to
loan dollar this year on tobacco
According to table compiled by our
department of agriculture our tobacco
crop last year was the largest so far on
record, amounting to 815,972, ,425 pounds,
of the total value of $55, ,514,6 ,627. In cigar
leaf production Wisconsin was the lead
ing state with yield of 69,946,2 200
pounds, but it received also the lowest
price for its tobacco, only an average of
Csc per pound. Pennsylvania was the
next largest cigar leaf growing state, but
with less than third of Wisconsin's
production, namely, only 22,495,500
pounds at slightly increased average
price of 7.3c per pound. Connecticut
follows closely Pennsylvania produc-
tion with 21,174,OOO pounds at over
double the value, namely, an average
price of 15.5c per pound. New York's
production was about nine million
pounds at an average of Sc per pound.
The highest price realized for its tobac-
co was realized by Florida, an average of
32c Der Mound for a production of 2.6OS.-