The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1909-10-01
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES

The harvest of another tobacco crop
has been completed and since the first
frost scare has been secured in very
good condition. Those growers who
waited for their tobacco to fully ripen
now see the wisdom of giving the crop
ample time to ma ture, for the curing
has gone on so much more satisfactor-
| lily. Later developments show that
about one-half the acreage of the state
escaped any markings of the early frost
|, md it is in the southern growing sec
ti,ns where the bulk of the buying has
bee conducted the past few weeks.
The e is quite territory where par
tial injury was done by the first freeze
whe re the amount of damage can best
be old after the leaf is stripped. These
sections have been largely neglected in
the buying so far while choice selec-
tions were being made, but doubtless
will receive attention later on. 1t is
nowise likely that the state will yield
it's full quota of binder goods this year,
and yet it is an easy matter to count
up above $4,000 cases Of the new crop
that is already under contract, includ-
ing, of course, some portions OF the
northern leaf purchased early which
was afterwards touched by the frost.
It is not believed, however, that half
the acreage of the state has SO far
been contracted for.
If quick method of curing tobacco,
discovered by DR.. w. w. Garne of the
Department of Agriculture, who has
been experimenting on the plantations
of Suffield, Conn.,, proves to be prac-
tical it bids fair to revolutionize the
present old-fashioned and crude system
of curing, which is the most hazardous
feature Of the tobacco raising business,
as well as the most tedious and annoy
ing. The plan being carried out is to
use artificial heat, carried about the
drying barn through ffues. Fires are
burned when the weather is unfavora
BILE for drying. It is expected that pole
sweating will be obviated. The fires IN
che barn in which the experiment is
being carried out were started Friday
evening and run Sc hours. The fires
are only kept going when the weather
Eis ullfayorable for the drying. 1t IS
saidstha the artificial heat system used
/ -. 49, nf fnh
leaves which had been put through the
farm of William S. Pinney has been
sent to Washington, where chemical
analysis will be made of both the sam
pie and of some leaves cured in the or
dinary way. The new method, which
is without steam heating, is expected
to obviate any possibility of the dan
gerous pole sweat.
The collection returns for August,
given out for publication, show that
there were 40, $50, ,867 more cigars man
ufactured last month than in the COR
responding month of the year previous.
They show, also, gain in the produc-
| ton of cigarettes over the same month
| last year of 152, 23O, ,087 They show a
gain in chewing and smoking tobacco
/ of 1897, 513 pounds, and in snuff of
| 37O, ,6O2 pounds. If the same gains were
maintained for twelve months consecu-
| lively, it would mean an annual in
crease in production of nearly half a
billion cigars, nearly two billion cigar
cites, over twenty million pounds of
| chewing and smoking tobacco and four
and a half million pounds of snuff. OF
course, it is not to be assumed that the
average of the year will equal the
splendid increases of August; but these
| comparisons are given to show more
graphically the fine improvement which
| has been made in the cigar and tobacco
industry during the past several weeks.
! -
| Nearly forty-three million pounds of
| domestic tobacco were less exported
during the fiscal year ending June Both
last, than during the previous fiscal
19O7-19O8. In other words, our exports
of domestic leaf were reduced by over
| 7 per cent of the total. AS there was
already considerable falling off in the
exports of tobacco the year previous,
| this additional tremendous loss should
! give food for serious reflection. It's
cause is apparent 1t is directly due
| to the criminal Pooling Trust of the so
called Equity societies. The object OF
the Pooling Trust was, by instituting a
reign of terror and lawlessness, to
force up the price of hogshead leaf be-
yond even an unreasonable limit of its
| intrinsic value. But it is powerless to
force the foreign regies and the Ger
man buyers into submission. BY Its
bulldozing tactics, the pool lost also an
export Of over FIVE million pounds to
British Australasia. The warning from
foreign trade papers that our domestic
tobacco growers would lose their for
eign trade if they did not stop their
criminal practices for driving up the
price of their tobacco beyond endurance.
That this warning has been made good
is proven by the falling If of 43 million
pounds of our exports in domestic to-
baccos. If, encouraged by last year, s