The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1906-01-12
TOBACCO INVESTIGATION.

During the fiscal year just closed in
vestigations for the improvement Of to-
bacco have been continued in Texas
Alabama, South Carolina Ohio, Virginia
and Connecticut. The experimental to-
bacco grown and packed during 1904
in Texas has been disposed of to the
trade. and very Favorable reports have
been received from those who bought it.
The prices obtained for this tobacco
ranged from % to 40 cents pound,
averaging 80 cents a pound, and were
considered so satisfactory that the farm
ers of eastern Texas decided to engage
in the industry, providing the tobacco
experts of the Bureau remained in Texas
to supervise the work. The product of
the entire acreage has been contracted
for by Chicago firm of leaf dealers at
Is cents pound in the unfermented
state. There had thus been created a
ready market for the Texas product.
The tobacco grown by the Bureau dur
ing 1904 and packed during the early
part of 1905 is undergoing the process of
aging. This tobacco is the property of
the Department of Agriculture, and
when sufficiently matured will be used
by the Department as samples to ascer
tain with still more certainty the com
mercial value and desirability of the leaf
for cigar purposes. In Ohio the Bureau
has practically finished it's individual ex
pertinent, the l0-acre crop grown in 1908
having been sold TO cigar manufacture
ing frm in Cincinnati for 35 cents a
pound. The crop of 1904 is still under
going the process of aging. This year
eight farmers in Montgomery county are
growing 80 acres under government sup
ervision, leaf packer in Germantown,
Ohio, having agreed to purchase the to-
bacco from them at remunerative prices.
The work of introducing the bulk meth
Cd of fermeDting the native Ohio tobac
cos has been continued. and during the
present packing season %, ,l69, 600 pounds
will be fermented according to the Bu-
reau's method. This tobacco consists
Of 16, 1S9 900 pounds Of thinner Spanish,
6,860,000 pounds of Ohio Seed leaf, and
10000 pounds OF Little Dutch, all of
which varieties are used in the manu-
facture of cigars. This makes the fourth
season that this work has been in prog
ress, and practically ali Of the packers
in the cigar leaf growing districts of
Ohio have now abandoned the practice
of case fermentation. The substitution
of bulk fermentation has been the means
not only of saving thousands of dollars
formerly lost through black rot and i'm.
perfect curing, but it has also added to
the profits of the packers through the
general improvement in the several
grades of these tobaccos now put upon
the market.
*x*
Over two thousand million pounds is
the worlds production of tobacco. Of
these two billions the American cont;
nent produces nearly one half, and of
this half the United States produces 85
per cent. The United States is therefore
pre-eminently the tobacco producing and
tobacco supplying country Of the globe,
and the vast wealth our people derive
from this source is yearly augmented by
an increased consumption. But this
mine of prosperity is threatened with
destruction by the fatuous short sight
edness of congress captivated by senti-
mental hallucination OF our Philippine
Secretary of War in proposing to admit
Philippine tobacco free of any duty.