The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1907-05-10
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES

and the coming of better weather condi-
tions the growers have reason to feel
more encouraged over the prospects for
the coming crop. And yet the second
| week of May finds the plants fully two
weeks behind other years at this date.
But the season is also at least that much
behind the average year SO it is not the
| tobacco grower alone but the general
farmer who is Delated The great fear
comes, however, in that other farm work
will interfere with sne preparing of the
tobacco fields even if the plant beds
should come forward and be in readiness
for transplanting at the usual time.
Everything now points to busy times on
the farms the coming few weeks and it
| must be especially so to the tobacco
growers who must give their other farm
work attention besides devoting extra
care in promoting rapid growth of the
plant beds. At best the present outlook
is for late planting of the tobacco crop
unless we are favored with unusual
weather conditions the balance of this
month.
*x*
There have been handled by the ten
firms or individual dealers that have
operated warehouses in our city during
the past season, between five and six
million pounds ard upwards of eighteen
thousand cases constitute the seasons
packing of wrappers and binders. 1t is
estimated that between six and seven
hundred thousand dollars have been
checked out from orr banks for last
years crop and for the labor-involved in
putting it up, and the latter is no incon-
siderable item, amounting as it does to
some sixty y-odd thousand dollars. Just
how many people have been employed
in tobacco work the past winter is, of
course, difficult to determine, but from
the data at hand we should say that the
number must have been we'll up towards
five hundred, Some of the warehouses
opened about the middle OF December,
but in the majority asserting was not
commenced until after New Years. and
although most of the packers are now
through, yet there are couple who have
tobacco on hand to occupy them for four
to eight weeks longer. Hub,
***
A Vernon county tobacco grower gives
his experience with tobacco fertilizers
that will be read with interest: A soil
robber is in one sense worse than the
fellow who loots the bank. He makes
the land unfit for future generations to
thrive upon. There'ar two methods of
maintaining the fertility of the soil
where we grow tobacco of which [ wish
to speak. One is the purchase of oil
meal or other grain rich in fertility, and
feeding it to stock, With corn meal and
oats at twenty three dollars ton and oil
meal in 5 bag lots at thirty dollars, the
dairy farmer had better sell part of the
corn and buy oil meal. Regarding the
tobacco fertilizer we should at Viroqua
place orders enough with the dealer to
get Car load. am satisfied the eleven
dollars worth [ sowed on four acres las.
year repaid me four times it's cost 1t is
good to SOW on tobacco BEDS and Mr..
Eckhart found it excellent for rose
bushes. Albert Johnson tried the fer
tilizer on seven rows of tobacco 1t grew
faster than that not fertilized, was much
larger, had better color, was ready to
harvest earlier, and weighed much more
| tudu Gu0 EOWS' IL liz oOOA-
tional fertilizer is used 400 to 500 pounds
about S26 or $27 ton. 1t can be sown
three or four plants.
~
One item I should like to speak about
in connection with the tobacco crop, and
that is the stalks, says writer in the
American Cultivator. Most of them are
partially or almost wholly wasted, for
the stalks are drawn out to some knoll
or side hill, or even on some level piece
of ground, and this usually after the
ground has been frozen, and spread upon
the land to freeze and thaw, with very
little chance for the juices of the stalk
to soak into the soil; but it is absor bed
by the snow, and at the first general
thaw is washed away with the snow
water The loss must be quite exten-
sive. But this is not ali. In the spring
they are picked up and thrown in some
ravine or out-of-the-way place and burn
ed, and the ashes washed away and lost.
and, in my opinion. making almost an
entire loss of the stalk part of the tobac-
co produced. Farmers are too negligent
in saving what they have produced, ex-
C0DC the DOrClO0 bQdJ Is SOIQ LOT CASH
value. They are in too much of hurry
to save the rest of the by-product as
closely as is done by the large corpora
tions or trusts of the country.
~
For the dull leaf market that has pre- |
vailed for some months past is found an |
explanation in the following bit of phil
osophy: The idea that cigar leaf tobac |
co will soon become cheaper has taken a |
frmer grip than ever, and is greatly re- |
stricting the present volume of trade. |
Every tobacco merchant in offering his |
wares is confronted by the buyer with |
questions as to whether he is ready to |
meet the lower market conditions, and |
other statements of the same tenor. 1t |
is hard fight to convince the manufac-
turers that tobacco good tobacco has
not receded in price, but in the mean
time it is utterly impossible to make |
sales other than for absolute needs. |
Credit is not as cheap as it used to be,
particularly in the leaf tobacco business, |
and unless the manufacturer is gilt edge |
in standing, or discounter. he finds it
IL for hn foo