The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1906-05-11
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES

Promoters of sugar beets and tobacco,
the two leading agricultural products of
Dane county, are conducting mild war
fare these days for the favor of the farm
ers. Tobacco appears 20 have the pole
in the race, and much of the weed will
again be raised in the southern part of
the county. There is a big demand for
tobacco, and some buyers are even offer
ing good price for implanted tobacco.
In fact the industry has developed into
a real game of chance. To buy implant-
ed tobacco is to take long shot on a
mighty uncertain element-the weather.
Madison Journal
So it seems everywhere in the tobacco
sections the sugar beet men are having
the hardest kind of work to secure the
acreage that has been planted in the
past few seasons. The prospects for to-
bacco prices are so fattering that the
farmers will return to something like the
old acreage the present season. The
grower who fails to lay out his fields to
the extent of his curing shed capacity is
seemingly making a mistake. In fact,
there never was so little tobacco in sight
as at the present time, and never has
there been such an opportunity for the
farmers who are tobacco growers as the
present season holds up to view, and we
hope next fall to make report of the
largest and best crop raised in the past
decade.
~
Some very good returns were made
from the growers of shade-grown leaf in
the Connecticut valley last season. JOS.
Mitchelson of Tariffville, Ct, is at the
head of a syndicate that produced 2l
acres which has been marketed at S110O
per acre, and the firm intends to increase
the acreage the coming season. The
cost of raising is about $500 per acre. M.
L. Floyd also reports that 9 acres of
shade grown brought net sum of $10,-
398. While the experiment of shade
growing has proven unfortunate to many
investors, after long struggle the grow
ofs are learning how to produce leaf
that meets the requirements of the do
mestic manufacturers as wrapper leaf.
~
If any Of our tobacco growers find that
their plant beds were not sufficiently
protected to escape injury from the cold
storms and severe frosts of the week it
would be we'll to replant the beds at
once. It is not yet too late to repair the
damage. 1t is generally believed how
ever, that but little injury has occurred.
The young plants were not sufficiently
advanced so the usual canvas protection
has saved them. The only safety in this
climate lies in having the beds we'll pro-
tected from the cold waves that fre-
quently come in early May.
*.*
In his annual address before the Ma
tional Cigar Leaf Tobacco Association at
Dayton, Ohio, this week, President Blur
reviews the campaign made to defeat
the Philippine tariff bill, even against
the wishes of the administration. Quot
ing from the address, he says: After
a government had been devised for the
Philippine Islands under the supervision
of the War Department, one of it's first
cares was to provide for making the
Islands self-supporting, so as to avoid
appealing to our Congress for funds an
nually, with the necessity of continuous
explanation and the risk of stirring up
the whole question of our further reten-
tion of the Islands. An internal revenue
tax on cigars and cigarettes, varying ac
cording to value from 81 to S3 per
thousand on the former, and according
to weight from 50 cents to 81 per thons-
and on the latter, formed part of the
plan adopted. This internal revenue
tax aroused the most violent and out
spoken opposition from the manufactur-
ers and workmen of Manila. There were
impressive professions of protest against
this measure, and countless meetings at
which the most bitter denunciations of
the unpopular method of taxation were
uttered again and again. To allay the
excitement, the government officials
urged the Philippine cigar interests to
accept the tax philosophically, and they
would repay them its cost many times
over by securing free admission into the
United States for their tobacco and CT
gars. War Department officials urged
this course frankly and insistently; |
have copies of various speeches of Gov
ernor-G General Wright putting tie mat
ter quite as bluntly as [ have, and |
have reliable testimony that it was the
usual method of persuasion nsed by the
minor officials of the Philipping govern
ment in urging patience with the exac-
tions of the internal revenue tax on pro-
testing delegations. | have asked the
represe natives of several Manila factor
les which they would prefer, repeal of
the Internal revenue tax law or free
Grade with the United States, and each
and every one has replied that the form
er would be the more desirable boon.
The cry for free trade that Secretary
Taft would have us believe comes from
people suffering from the loss of mar
ket, IN the face of reliable returns that
the Philippine tobacco industry. IS as
great as ever, comes from the urging OF
War Department officials who are trying
to still the opposition to an unpopular
rovanun mnaGurn nf their own recon-