The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1904-02-12
TOBACCO MEN IN CONVENTION
Funds To be Raised For Tobacco Exhibit
At St. Louis Exposition.
Prizes Awarded for the Best Samples of the New Crop
Old officers Reelected.


Wisconsin Tobacco Growers and Deal
ers' Association was held at the state
capitol at Madison on Wednesday, Feb.
Sd, attended by more than 80 from all
parts of the state. President j. M. Estes
called the meeting to order at 2p. N.
and the minutes of the last annual meet
ing were read and approved. The re-
ports of the secretary and treasurer were
also presented and approved. A com.
mittee consisting Of F. S. Baines, James
vile. Vim. Hochstein, Milwaukee, and
w. T. Olson Dunkirk, was appointed TO
Judge the samples of tobacco in competi-
ton for the prizes offered by the asso-
citation.
PRESIDENTS ADDRESS.
President John M. Estes then read his
annual address which in part is as fol-
| lows:
| OF the twenty six tobacco producing
states, Wisconsin ranks 9th in yield per
acre, 4th in amount produced, 18th IN
| price per pound and 4th in total value.
| Upon authority of the secretary of agri-
culture, 1O27, ,735 acres of tobacco were
produced in the United States in 1903
The average yield per acre was 1856
pounds. The total production was S15,-
972, ,425 pounds. The average price per
pound was cents and the total value
was 55,5l4, ,627.
| Wisconsin is credited with 81 ,812 acres.
Yield per acre 1850 pounds Produc-
tion SO, ,946 200 pounds. Price per pound
6.8 cents. Total value $4,756,342. Ex-
pressed decimally, our acreage was per
| cent. Yield per acre compared to the
average yield was 173 per cent. Produc.
ton 8.5 per cent. Price per pound ex-
actly 100 per cent. Value 80 per cent.
| Approximately, so per cent. of the to-
bacco grown in the United States is used
in the manufacture of chewing, pipe
smoking, cigarettes and snuff, or is used
in its natural state. for home consump-
ton; and only about 20 per cent. is
adapted to the manufacture of cigars.
The cigar leaf states may produce d
type of tobacco adapted to the manu-
facture of cigars, but they can produce
mo other type. BY way Of compensation
the districts which grow the heavier
classes of tobacco .cannots successfully
lproduce cigar leaf. IL they use our seed
and employ our methods of culture, cur,
ing and handling, they will obtain but a
poor counterfeit of our product. Soil
and climaye set the ,metes and bounds
within which only certain classes and
TYPES of tobacco may be produced.
! OF the seven leading cigar leaf states
Wisconsin ranks 1st in acreage, 4th in
yield per acre, 1st in amount produced
| 7th in price per pound and lst in total
value. In price per pound we stand at
the foot of the list, This fact is sugges
itive of poor seed, poor farming, or of un-
favorable conditions of soil and climate
We generally sell our tobacco for all it is
worth. The average price is low, but in
every neighborhood there are some crops
| which in texture, style and finish com
I.pare favorably with the best tobacco
grown in the eastern states. These
crops command fancy prices and do not
1 wait long for purchaser.
These conditions furnish the key to
the situation. If fortunate selection OF
seed and the employment of correct
| methods in culture, curing and handling
I will produce one crop in neighborhood
1 of high excellence, then it must follow
that if these methods be faithfully cop
4
in that vicinity may be of the same high
s.standard. The road which leads one
sfarmer or one neighborhood to success
i On the cultivation of tobacco in this state
/ is open to every man who would travel
!therein
| I believe that the hardest worked man
in the world and the poorest calculator
lis the Wisconsin tobacco farmer. We
| undertake too much. We reason that if
five acres of tobacco will bring certain
amount, 10 acres will bring twice as
much and 20 acres Will bring four times
as Eauch, and SO we undertake to grow
| too large an acreage. In our calcula-
| tions we take great risks and do not
| carefully reckon with labor.
| 1t is long downward step from 10
cents "a pound to 5 cents pound, and
yet how often the Wisconsin tobacco
grower takes this step, when, instead of
a reasonable acreage and clean, first
| class crop, he wrestles with an over
prod uctien of worthless, nameless stuff
which is not clearly entitled to place in
! the tobacco markets of the world.
/ Our tobacco growers and dealers have
Experienced all the failures and disap-
pointments which are inevitabl in an
! industry which is not thoroughly under
stood nor firmly established. If our
methods are sometimes bad, they are not
growing worse but are certainly on the
road to improvement. How this i'm
| proVement may be most fully and speed
lily accomplished, by what means our in
dustry may be made certain and per-
manent success, is, in purely unselfish
spirit, the mission of the Growers and
Dealers Tobacco Association of Wiscon-
sin.
TOBACCO EXHIBIT AT THE ST. LOUIS EXPO
SITICN.
The first paper on the program was an
address of former Governor Hoard, pres
ident of the state commission relative to
the Wisconsin tobacco exhibit at the st.