The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1906-05-18

Concerning the subject of maintaining
the fertility of tobacco fields, cores
pondent of the Gays Mills paper says:
Tobacco culture is for the time being a
Taying crop but it exhausts the soil
friyto rapidly than any other crop. Any
methods of culture that leave this fact
out of view are faulty as they enrich the
land owner at the expense of all the fer
tility of his land and when land is once
exhausted of it's fertility by the cultiva-
ton of tobacco, 40 process can make it
profitab ble to cultivate again for any
at the exhausted and abandoned lands
land in some of the early tobacco grow
ing sections of Wisconsin has been so
abused that tobacco growing no longer
pays. Such reckless overtaxing of the
soil and obstinate adherence to single
precarious crop is faulty and ruinous.
In addition to liberal manuring some
scheme of rotation should be adopted.
A little rotation of crops is found in this
country. A rotation Of two crops of corn,
tobacco three years, practiced in Rock
and Jefferson counties, while tobacco is
grown without rotation in Crawford,
Vernon and Columbia counties. I know
of farmer, who does not live twenty
miles from Gays Mills, that has for sew
eral years profitably practiced two
crop rotation, cow peas one year and to-
bacco two years. He grows about six
acres of tobacco every year and has it
arranged so that one third of his ground
is sown with cow peas yearly. Cow peas
as soil renoyator and fertilizer are
quite equal to clover, besides it's high
feeding qualities, the COW pea has an
other merit in being an annual plant.
The sand or hairy vetch is also highly
recommended for a fertilizing plant. The
Washington Department of Agriculture
estimates the value of plowed under
crop of this vetch as equivalent to S16 to
$40 worth of commercial fertilizers per
acre."
1t is hardly fair for the writer of the
above to cite the exhausted tobacco
lands ofVirginia and MARYLAND as an
example. The error in those states was
poor cultivation and successive cropping
without putting any fertilizer back into
the soil to supply the loss. Western
ways of farming are entirely different.
The writer can show you tobacco fields
within few miles of Edgerton that have
grown more than thirty successive crops
of tobacco and are still producing tobac-
co both in quantity and quality equal to
any ever previously raised. But the
grower is careful about maintaining the
fertility of his soil, and this is what the
growers of this state need to learn.
~
According to the latest reports, there
is slight prospect of the Philippine to-
bacco reduction duty bill being again
brought to life at this session of con-
gress. However, advices from Washing
ton early this week certainly indicate
otherwise. This is to the effect that the
administration is now willing to agree to
compromise it bitterly fought last win
ter. The proposal is to amend the Phil
ippine bill so that tobacco from the
islands may come into the United States
at 80 per cent of the Dingley rates, in
stead of 25 per cent, as first desired by
the supporters of the Payne bill. 1t will
be remembered that the cigar leaf inter
ests offered to agree to compromise at
80 per cent reduction, but was turned
down Should the bill be revived on
this basis it will be virtually victory
for the various tobacco associations. The