The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1906-04-06
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES

that increase will amount to. The his
tory of other seasons following fat years
for the growers demonstrates that the
increase of any one year over the previ-
Gus one seldom exceeds % per cent. 1t
is to be expected that considerable new
area will be planted with tobacco in the
northern growing sections, especially in
La Crosse county, the Trempeleau val
ley and in Eau Claire and Dunn coun-
ties, which for several years past has
been extending it's tobacco fields. The
Vernon and Crawford county district is
quite likely to be extended somewhat
the coming season with an increase of
from 10 to Is per cent. In Dane and
Rock counties where the old tobacco
growing area has been encroached upon
by the sugar beet the past two years, a
considerable increase will be planted
this season. A good many farmers who
were supplied with the curing sheds
have cut down their acreage lately or
changed over to sugar beets will now
come back into tobacco growing again.
Possessed with the tools, the curing
facilities and experience, it will be an
easy matter for the growers to devote
larger area the coming season.
~
It will be remem bered that the writer
of this column about a year ago this
time persstenty urged growers to in
crease their tobacco fields of the 1905
crop. 1t seemed to US that was the sea-
son to grow big tobacco crop. The de-
velopments that followed showed how
correctly we had diagnosed the condi-
tions and though the advice given at
that time was not as extensively followed
as we would have liked, it is with some
satisfaction that we refer to the matter
now If the conditions were favorable
year ago for large acreage and increased
prices, how much better are they today?
With the country entirely bare of cured
leaf and the market away short of it's le-
gitimate demands of the domestic man
ufacturers, With prices continually ad-
vancing, the opportunity for the tobacco
reach. The prospects of exceedingly re-
munerative prices have rarely been ex-
celled. Wisconsin can produce 100000
cases the next two seasons without any
danger of an overproduction of binder
leaf. Then with the new demand for
low grade leaf from the scrap manufact-
urers there is still broader field open
ing up for the Wisconsin grower to take
the cheaper grades at advanced prices
for some years to come. Will the tobac-
CO growers wake up TO the opportunity
that awaits them? Again let me urge
the Wisconsin farmers to prepare to
plant big tobacco crop in 1906.
There were imported into this country
in the year 1905, 7,109,595 pounds of
wrapper tobacco, of which by far the
larger part, or 6,764,061 pounds, came
from the Netherlands, although grown
on the Island of Sumatra. The value of
that tobacco, at wholesale, in the mar
kets of the Netherlands, was 74.3 cents
per pound. We got 1886 pounds of
wrappers from Cuba, the cost there hav-
ing been Sl.S1 per pound. The only to-
bacco imported at a more expensive price
was from European Turkey, which was
worth $3.45 per pound. We took only
2,297 pounds, because we were unwilling
to pay the price. Of the filler tobacco
imported, by far the largest quantity
came from Cuba: in fact, out OF rs, 49,
1888 pounds brought into this country,
q, ,430, ,293 pounds came from Cuba,
which admittedly produces the finest
filler tobacco in the world. The value
of our importations of this class of goods
was fifty cents per pound in the Cuban
market. We imported few thousand
pounds of filters from the British West
Indies that were worth 621s. cents per
pound, but the place of their growth is
not given. The value per pound of the
tobacco received from Porto Rico during
the year 1904 was only SO.193 per pound.
That received from the Philippine Is
lands was worth in that country SO.329
per pound for wrapper goods and S0179
TOr ull6rS.
***
Further details of the great damage to
the Cuban tobacco crop by the torren-
tial rains which swept the island of Cuba
during the months of December and
January just passed, are contained ip
mail report to Secretary Root, which has
just reached the state department. The
past history of the tobacco-growing in
dustry records no such general destruc-
tion of tobacco crop as by the torren-
tial rains recently. Leading planters de-
clare that not more than from 80 to 80
per cent. of the regular harvest will be
reaped, and that the leaf marketed will
be very deficient in quality. The num-
ber of bales of tobacco in 1905 was 469.-
1928, while the 1906 estimate is 10000
bales. The latter figure will be further