The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1905-02-10
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES

The activity that has been going on
the past few months towards gathering
in the remnants of cured leaf remaining
in country hands is pretty sure index
that there is prospective shortage of
binder stock in the country and the
scarcity of available leaf suitable to the
needs Of the better class OF manufactur-
ers will become more apparent as time
goes by. The output of the cigar man
ufacturers is holding up we'll towards
the highest point reached in the history
of the country, while the production of
domestic cigar leaf has steadily fallen off
the past few years. With no large sur
plus OF stock carried over from year to
year, the conclusion is natural that
sooner or later the market would find it.
self bare of certain tobaccos needed to
keep abreast with the increasing de-
mands for manufactured goods. While
large proportion of the cured goods
marketed in this state the past few
months are of the cheaper grades not
suitable for high class domestic cigars,
all the time buyers have had their eyes
out for everything that would class as
binder stock and laid aside until such
time as the market calls for them. The
low grades which have gone Immediately
into consumption or to export account
take out of reckoning that class of goods
and hurries the time when the market
shortage of available binder stock and
then more money will be demanded and
secured for these goods The condition
is bound to bring about a healthier con-
dition IN the trade and appreciabIy en-
hance the value of the new crop as we'll
as the prospects for the coming ones,
Growers may rest assured that good leaf
is bound to bring remunerative prices
for some years to come.
In a decision handed down: by the su-
preme court of New York, grasshopper-
eaten tobacco has been legally defined
as damaged tobacco. An action brought
by grower of that state against New
York firm to recover upon a contract
that did not specify grasshopper- eaten
leaf as damaged, had been 10 the courts
for some time. A first trial judgment
was secured by the grower, which upon
lappea~ wss fnallg reversed and the
question settled by the higher tribunal
-:. @'' XXX
Prizes were awarded for the best ex-
hibit of 1905 tobacco at the Growers
convention at Madison, Wednesday, as
follows: 1st prize, j.. o. Flugum. of
Rutlaud; I'd prize, Thos. Larson of
Mauston; Sd prize, j. ID. Gallagher of
Oregon; 4th prize O. O. Hougan of
Pleasant Springs.
The daily press of late has devoted
considerable of their space to Connecti-
cut shade-grown tobacco, and, incident
ally. to rapping Commissioners Wilson
over the knuckles for having spent SO
much of Uncle Sans money for expert
mental purposes in the New England
states 1t matters nothing to me, per-
sonally, says 'The beginner" in the n. Y.
Leaf, whether growing tobacco under
shade in Connecticut proves success Or
failure; but think it is silly for people
in the trade to set up howl just be-
cause the government experiments have
not resulted in the success that was ex-
pected. Were it not for the experiments
which our government has been making |
for years past in many lines of agricul- |
ture, number of great commercial sue
cesses would not have been possible. |
Regardless of what others may think, L |
believe the government money spent in |
Connecticut has not been lest. In gspite |
of the unfavorable growing seasons since |
the experiments with shade-grown to- |
bacco were first made, | believe it las |
been demonstrated beyond doubt that |
a valuable wrapper can be raised under |
cloth; and that it is up to the grower to |
suggest less expensive method of han |
ding the leaf and to remedy the defects |
which the tobacco now has
~
G. A. Burnett, of Paducah, Kentucky, |
who has Just returned from Europe says |
that the English dealers in American to- |
bacco are not satisfied with the outlook |
under the law placing a tax on tobacco
stripped in America, in the hope of
up an English stripping indus
try. Some of the dealers have fitted up
their plants for taking out the stems
for leaf imported from America, but that |
they find it more disagreeable than first
expected. They are coming to the un-
pleasant realization that stemming to-
bacco after it has been priced is not SO
easy, while there is no market there for
stems that make them profitable. Mr..
Burnett believes that the prohibitive
duty on stripped tobacco will soon be
repealed.
~
The longer one considers the proposi
ton to give the Filipinos the control of
the cigar and tobacco market of the
United States the more vicious it grows.
On the one hand congress appropriates
|ayiShly hundreds of thousands of dol