The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1906-03-02

Growers and Dealers Association at Mad
ison Feb. Sth.
Appreciating the honor of an invita-
tion to address your honorable body on
the subject "The Bright Future for To-
bacco Raising in This State" l regret
that the pressure of business prevents
me from attending your meeting and
presenting my views in person.
Statistics teach us that the tobacco in
dustry was started in this state in very
small way in the early COS, since which
time the industry has gradually grown
until it has become the largest and most
popular cigar leaf growing state in the
United States.
There must be reason for this won
derful stride. There is; and it can be
easily explained. Your soil is adapted
for the purpose, as 1T contains the prop
critics to ensure a leaf with the ideal
burning qualities, which is one of the
most essential points in tobacco manu-
factured into cigars.
You started with pure seed. you kept
up your land by the free use of fertil-
izers, and now, gentlemen, having &C.
quired a reputation, do not let it slip
away from you. Continue as you started.
Keep improving and you are sure to re-
tain the reputation you now enjoy.
There is point of interest [ would
like to dwell upon, and that is injudic-
ious selecting of tobacco seed that some
of you of late have been planting, which
if you continue, will rob you Of your rep
utation. Do not take seed from any per
son that gives you an assurance that it
is from crop that sold at fancy price,
or that it came from the Agricultural
Department at Washington, or hat Bill
Jones Or Sam Smith recommends it,
chiefly because you can get it free OF
cost. Ii you do, you alone will be the
party that will suffer. What you should
aim to do is to get the pure and genuine
Spanish, for this is the seed that gave
this state the reputation; therefore in
my opinion, you should continue to use
it. Do not keep raising seed each and
every year, or in short time it will run
out and you will be raising run-out to-
bacco What you should do is to start
with the genuine article and raise
enough seed from the first years plants
to meet your requirements for number
of years.
10 illustrate that your seed is deter
iorating, 60 back a few years. All will
RENE 4oer shat after you had your crop
harvested, person driving along the
road, in the early morn, passing shed
of tobacco would detect pleasant aroma
emanatins from these sheds; occasion
ally you will find this existing today, but
not as frequently. This should be suf-
ticient proof that you are not raising
genuine Spanish tobacco.
There is another point that L should
like to call your attention to- and that is,
do not imagine that the buyer is your
enemy and when he tells you what in
his opinion is for your benefit that he is
playing you false. In the majority of
cases such is not fact, for his interests
are your interests and vice versa. His
desire is to buy the best crops and wants
you to raise good product for the rea
so1 that there is always ready market
| for asfrst-class article and toward that
aim he is giving you the benefit of his
experience
Form an association, and for your
members have both growers and dealers,
and from time to time exchange ideas.
Especially in our business there is hard
| ly year passes that something new
| does not present itself Do not be ego
! tistical and imagine you know it ALL for
| the most experienced person can some
| times be benefited by an idea advanced
| by one of less experience.
| In my opinion the tobacco grown in
| the state Of Wisconsin is the best binder
| tobacco that is sold in the eastern mar
| kets and to substantiate this will give
you the reasons on which | base my
| opinion.
! Until few years ago, New York state
was conceded as producing the finest
and best tobacco used for binder pur-
| poses. At that time the state produced
| over 100000 cases annually. But since
Wisconsin came into prominence, New
| York has retrograded and today does not
! raise 10000 cases, which should demon
strate to you that you have superior
article
The acreage in this state has of late
diminished somewhat on account of the
| beet sugar industry and it is question
| for you to decide which is the more
| profitable, tobacco at 10 to II cents per
| pound, and the existing conditions al
| most guarantee that these prices will
| prevail for some years hence, or sugar
| beets at $500 per ton.
You could raise 100000 cases in this
state for the next five years and prob
dOIy III q IouScI poiloO VI Ilu1O anu yOu
will not create an over production.
For this reason the industry of cigar
| manufacturing has increased over so per
cent, while the acreage of tobacco plant
ed during the years has not kept pace
with the consumption.
In closing let me call your attention to
the Philippine tariff bill now before con-
gress, which, if it becomes law, will
greatly affect your interests and may
| bring about state of affairs that most
of you will remem ember-similar to those
of the years 1894 5 6 when most of you
had from two to four years tobacco lay
ing in your sheds. The purport of this
bill is to reduce the tariff on Philippine
| tobacco to 25 per cent. of the present
duty and on and after January 1st, 1909,
| to let it come in free
The House of Representatives have al
| ready voted favorably upon the passage
of this bill, and it will shortly be sent to
the U. S. Senate for their approval.
| Should this bill pass that body it will
become law, as our worthy President is
| in favor of it.