The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1906-09-07
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES

The splendid prices which have main
tanned so far in the sale of 1906 tobacco
crop seemingly warrants the prediction
that the present crop will bring to the
grower of Wisconsin the highest average
price and largest amount of money ever
before received Even the far famed
crop of 1884, when prices went above 20
cents at the latter end of the buying
land many of the dealers who handled it
went broke) did not net the average
price to growers as tn. yresent crop is
doing. One packer tells US that he put
up 44O0 cases of the '84 crop that stood
him in the boxes, with commissions and
insurance added, trife over Is cents a
pound. another put up a 500 case
packing that cost but Is cents in the
cases and he added, "the firm for whom
the tobacco was packed lost $4,000 in
the deal" No one will attempt to claim
that any sized packing of the present
crop will be laid in the cases at the fig
ures quoted above. The question then
arises what must this tobacco be sold
for year hence to afford the packers
any profit, il any portion of it, or say the
average amount of the last few years
should damage in the case? We cite
these figures to show that if the limit of
high prices for Wisconsin leaf has not
already been reached, it must be well
nigh towards it. The speculations in
green tobacco at top notch prices must
sometime end in disaster. It may not
come this year, but twill surely come if
persisted in. While the craze lasts the
grower is the real beneficiary and no one
begrudges him his fat profits. And yet
it is question whether it would not be
better for everybody connected with this
industry if moderately remunerative
prices should prevail rather than the ex
tremes of high and low levels. 1t is the
steady, prosperous business that counts
in the long run.
***
The presence of the buyers of some of
ths large Vernon county operators in the
southern growing sections during the
recent rush of buying can be accounted
for on either one of two theories,
that the crop in the southern counties is
just as good or even better than the Yer
non county leaf or else their handiwork
here in paying outside figures is for the
purpose of holding prices up to the level
of those paid for the northern contracts.
If you choose the first horn of the di-
lena then the superiority of the Vernon
county leaf is good deal of myth, as
very many packers believe, and there is
no good reason hereafter why higher
prices need be paid to growers of Craw-
ford or Vernon counties than elsewhere
for similar leaf. If it is the premeditat-
ed design of the up-country dealers to
force the buyers to maintain the same
high brices for the southern tobacco as
prevailed above, then it is smother ques-
ton and the grower who holds the bag
is the one who is smiling. In either
event the fact remains that representa-
tives of the Vernon county operators
have been very much in evidence in the
southern farming districts this seasen.
*x*
1t is almost common remark that no
tobacco crop ever came up in this state
under more favorable weather conditions
/ than the present one and these condi-
tions seem likely to continue right up
through the harvest. Certainly the past
two weeks has been ideal weather for
prosecuting the harvest and equally so
for the curing of the hanging leaf. At
no time has there been any climatic
changes likely to produce shed damage
while the curing was proceeding. Not a
day of hot, muggy weather has occurred
since the harvest began. BY the end of
this week the bulk of the crop is secur-
ed though from lack of sufficient help
the harvest on farms of large acreage
will continue for another week. Every
thing ought to be in long before the usu-
al frost time.
A correspondent writing from New
England sounds the warning that Wis
consin tobacco is likely to prove a dan
gerous competitor, for he says:
From Wisconsin, too. comes tie re-
port that they are raising another good
binder crop, and we have to watch out
or they will be packing some of it for
wrappers. Better not allow much of it
to be shipped to Connecticut or it may
not become Wisconsin binders when it is
ready for the market. They are paying
as much as we people of the Connecticut
valley get for wrappers
What of it if our Wisconsin tobacco is
just as good and the manufacturer is
unable to distinguish the difference?
~
The tremendous boom in the cigar
and tobacco industry that has charac-
terized the past five years has caused an
increase in the value of the tobacco
farms of the United States from S24O,-
CSO,535 to S298,032,2 ,241, gain of S57,221,-
706. These stupendous figures are pre-
sented BY the Department of Agriculture
as the result of most painstaking CEN
sus of the agricultural lands OF the
TTpitnd Statac nothcro1 nv q c0rDS Of