The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1905-09-01

NOTE BOOK SKETCHES

to see the end of the great scramble to
get control of the growing tobacco crop
it southern sections, and saner methods
will probably prevail. BY that time the
more desirable lots, where farmers can
be prevailed upon to sell, will be under
contract and the army of buyers who
have kept the. country roads warm for
the past few weeks will retire. The pace
has been the fastest one ever seen in the
Wisconsin tobacco fields, which has new
er witnessed whole sections cleaned up
in day. One buyer is credited with
having secured contracts for more than
400 acres in four and half days riding,
breaking the record for fast buying. There
is now no tobacco growing section of the
state that has not been thoroughly in
vestigated and an effort made to secure
the most promising lots. The late fields
and the damaged sections are yet unsold
but these will be attended to in their or
der and trading done more leisurely. The
harvest is now so we'll under way that
the 18th of September will see the great
bulk of the crop secured. What grow
ers have most to fear now is heavy winds
to tear and break the tremendous heavy
growth. The sheds too need to be care
fully looked after in case the weather
conditions are unfavorable to the cure.
A high priced crop is being secured and
no grower can afford to suffer loss by his
own carelessness now that nature has
favored him with so fine a growth of TO-
bacco.
The continuation of the warm grow
ing weather with frequent showers. pre-
cisely what was needed to finish out the
maturity of the medium and late tobac-
co fields, is making pictures" of the to-
bacco that is now about ready for the
sheds. AS in some other seasons it is
the medium fields that are producing
the largest and soundest leaf and such
growth as the state has seldom seen.
sts.&od fow weeks ago seemed ques-
tionable whether it would ever make
good leaf or even reach the sheds, has
under phenomenal growing conditions
outstripped the earlier fields and is in
every way the most desirable tobacco.
Having matured quickly it will certainly
be thin and in the opinion of the buyers,
prime binder stock. And this is the
kind of tobacco that buyers are calling
pictures. Under such conditions it can
scarcely be wondered at that prices have
steadily advanced.
***
It is already evident that growers will
realize 8 much greater salvage from their
tobacco injured by hail than was at first
supposed. Many fields were SO small
when the early hail storms came that
the plants have outgrown the damage
and few leaves on the stalk now show
the effects of the storm. Even the to-
bacco that at first was thought to be al
most ruined is found now to be of some
commercial value that will pay for the
harvesting. A lively market has sprung
up for this class of leaf and growers are
able to place contracts for the hail-cut
tobacco at better figures than have be-
fore realized for such leaf in some years
past. The damage therefore from the
numerous hail storms that have been so
widespread this season cannot be figured
as great as at first believed. It will be
to the advantage of growers to shed as
much of the hailed fields as give promise
of being even good stripping stock, for
there is seemingly a demand for such
stock and at prices too out of proportion
to the better grades.
**x
/ Martin Four Eyes, a Winnebago In
dian, has small tobacco plantation be-
tween Millston and Shamrock, Jackson
county, on which is raised tobacco of
peculiar nature which is highly priced
among the Indians and needs only to be
known by their white brethren to insure
it's production upon much larger scale.
Four Eyes is something of pioneer in
the matter of tobacco raising, having
grown it on his little plat of ground for
years, commencing long before the white
man dreamed that tobacco was crop
adapted to northern latitude. Indian
tradition is to the effect that Four Eyes
got his first tobacco seed from his father,
who got his original stock from his faith
er. and so on back through the genera
tions to the time when Raleigh was tax
ing the boys behind the barn to give
them their first lessons on corn cob
pipe. We are not sufficiently informed
regarding Indian tradition to be sure of
how much of Four Eyes tobacco seed
came to him from his fathers and how
much from other sources, but he main
tains that it's history is authentic and
that only from such seed can like quail
ity of tobacco be grown. The tobacco is
grown on very light soil. The plants do
not attain large SIZE but are of the
dwarf species. The leaves are small and
thin, and when cured are similar in tex
turc to the ordinary wrapper leaf, cur
ing dark sometimes like perique. The
Indians ascribe to this tobacco quality
approaching that of the opium pill of
the Chinese. One pipeful sends the
smoker into the land of delightful
dreams, and even few puffs at a pipe
nd fI1l