The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1906-03-16
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES

pOunu lot OF Ult0TS anu udlI-Cut lodI ny
the Bamberger firm at the unheard of
price Of Z and 10 cents amply illustrates
the frenzied condition of the market for
low grades, such as the manufacturers
of scrap smoking and chewing brands
have developed such an extraordinary
demand for. One of the peculiar freaks
OF the tobacco trade is that this class of
leaf in an uucured condition should
within twelve month double, tri bble
and even quadrupble in price, Never
before have prices for cheap tobaccos
made such abnormal advances and must
be now we'll towards the limit that man
ufacturers can afford TO pay for stock
entering into the production of these
brands. The race of the larger manu-
factarers so far has seemingly been to
get control of the supply regardless of
price and the competition has been acute
ia every growing district. The profits
FOR the manufacturers for the next year
must be cut TO "a small figure and the
question that interests the consumer is
whether the brands will not be made of
poorer stocGx, in which event it will be
only matter of time when the dem land
for the coordination smoking and chew
ing brands will be falling off and the de-
cline may 'be as rapid as the trade ex-
panded @or these goods the past few
years. The conditions are we'll WORTH
watcheag.
*xm
With cigar leaf scarce and grices 'hagh
there is~always temptation for manu-
factarers to turn their attention towards
substitutes. There is an ,abundance of
tobacco grown south of the Mason and
DiRon'line, generally used Sor other pur-
poses, that can upon a pfRch, be'used in
thenmanufactQre of cigars. We9Inow Of
ans carrying on experiments with the
the treatment of southern Leaf in an ef-
fort to convert ut Iclto suitab2e filler for
the cigarmakers@ table. Somewhere
tide over the present acute ~stringency of
tho market In the usual seigar making
meterial. Americans are an ingenious
people and there is way to break every
toenner in the products ofsthe country.
s@
Ghe annaal reports Of the American
Cigar Co, and its subsidiary concerns
shows as Far @s an array'of' fig ures could
indicate that Ehe big trust is enjoying a
fair measure OF prosperity. The oct in
peefne for the gear .after,ell charges and
ed4Was ST. sGG2sSI. No @dlvidends were
declared, however, the whole income be-
! ing added to the sErplee. The company
hasas &c, ,0O0,090 of outstanding stock and
owes 500, ,010y009 more insgold notes. The
s4surplus has been Rnoreased more than
%.*
PRO. E. H Jenkins Of the N. e. ex-
|, detrimental station takes issue with the
general custoGn e@f ,spnouting tobacco
seed and advises the mixing of dry seed
when soWn upon tlae beGss il recent re-
go growers iR O0nneodicut and other
narthern tobaoeo+growing sections to
+spnout,a part, at least, 81 the seed s2sed
f0rasoWiag the seed bee.s. This is Nsu-
ably done by Making the seed Thoroughly
with moist r0tted apple tree fiber, or
"EpRza2x,' OF rotted s3ocoaaut fiber, and
EeeQng this 0li1t8re in lass jars or
paas in 4a,.varm no9en rfer few days.
ho to
eNaaleamount of 0ry-Seed ss added to the
spr0@4ed- seed, and the IEniztu re sowed ia
the seed bed. So@e growers say this
>seedlfs2gs for transplsnting. In expert
ments conducted to eompare plants
raised ffrsm day and sprOuted seed, the
results, OF these exact comparisons did
,not support the conclusion that the
.spEouted seed produced the best plants.
Et lis true ptsaat the sprouted seed under
favorable, conditions produced the eari
sst plants for transplanting, d5ut upon
following tie ,plaats raised arom the
sassoutad seed from the seed bed to the
field it was found that the plants raised
fr@an the dry seed gaickly overlook the
plants raised from thesprouted seed and
eventually .prodalced the best developed
plants. In lEaany cases where the
spr0u6ed seed was sown in the seed beds
a sligsatly ,ua1favorable condition such as
hot sua or "a dry sarface ef the seed bed
seriously injared, if not entirely destroy
ed, the tender young plants. Plants
from the dry seed were more hardy and
able to withstand the Injurious effects
of slightly anfaxorable conditions. When
the seed is mixed with the sprouting
medium, either s'punk" or cocosnut fiber
it is common practice to shake or stir
the material frequently SO as to give it
as aniform conditions as possible for
sproating all of the seed. However, it
frequently happens that some of the
seed, most favorably located, produces
long sprouts before it is sowed in the
seed beds. These plants are liable to ia
jury in sowing, and such injuries are
likely to result in inferior, dwarfed and
undesirable plants. It is recommended
that growers demonstrate the matter for
themselves by sowing this year portion
of the seed bed or beds with dry seed,
in order to make comparison of the
two methods of sowing seed. 1t can be
safely said that the dry seed will pro-