The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1909-01-15
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES

4
Necessity is. said to be the mother of
invention and that is probably the rea-
son why the inventive genius of Sam
uel yGrundy has evolved a machine for
removing white mold or must from to-
bacco. He has in operation at his
warehouse in Janesville labor saving
device of this character that does the
work of ten or fifteen hands in a most
satisfactory manner. Brushes fastened
to a revolving shaft driven by small
| electric motor, having a movable table
underneath that can be raised or low
cred as desired, is the simple apparatus
that accomplishes this work If white
mold is to continue such a common
thing in Wisconsin tobacco as it has the
past few years, Mr.. Grundy's invention
will come into much larger use. The
present method Of removing the mold
by hand brushing is slow and expensive
to the packer and up to the present
time has been employed quite extern
sively. Mold is not considered such a
| serious detraction from the quality of
tobacco but it impairs the selling value
to such an extent that most packers
have resorted to brushing such leaf be-
| fore being offered on the market.
just at this time, when the cigar leaf
| tobacco growers all over the country
are agitated over the question of lower
| ing the tariff on imported tobacco, that
wide awake trade journal, the United
| States Tobacco Journal, comes forward
with the declaration that the use Of
| proper fertilizers is matter of more
| importance to the tobacco growers of
the country than any question of high
| or low duty on tobacco imports. It
takes the very sensible ground that
when a tobacco crop is faulty in burn,
color of ashes, or any of the other
causes that make it unacceptable to
| manufacturers and smokers, arising
from the improper treatment Of the
soil, no amount of tariff can make it
acceptable to consumers. On the other
hand, if a cigar leaf is grown that pos
sesses the qualifications demanded by
the cigar industry and its patrons, it
will be quickly bought up by packers
and manufacturers at prices that are
Eremunerative to the growers. There
| can be no reasonable doubt about the
correctness of that general proposition.
1t is the result of the experience of a
generation of the tobacco growers in
this and other states. 1t is to the ma
terial that goes to the nourishment of
the tobacco plant that the cured leaf
| owes its good or poor qualities, and
| that make it money-getter. The
! Journal directs attention TO the deteri-
oration which for several years has
shown itself in the tobacco grown in
| New England. It has been the prac-
ticekin the later years to fertilize these
! tobacco farms with what are commonly
| known as artificial or commercial fer
| tilizers These, it is contended, bring
along the tobacco plants more rapidly,
| and give them certain NERVOUSNESS
and apparent thriftiness, yet from their
constant use the land becomes sick, SO
to speak, exhausts it's inherent and best
plant food, and the result is tobacco
that is lacking in body, texture and
other qualities required to constitute
| first-class leaf for cigar purposes. Ex-
periments at our tobacco experimental
stations have shown that barnyard ma
nure does not make heavy yields unless
quickly as the artificial fertilizers, but
| the results in the end are more endur-
able, and with the aid of plowed-down
crops will give the required satisfac-
tion. New Era
l
| The Department of Agriculture has
issued the final figures on the tobacco
| crop of 1903, showing by states the
acreage, yield per acre, production,
price per pound on December /, and
! total farm value on December l. The
acreage for the whole country is given
as 875, ,425. acres; 820.2 pounds the yield
| per acre; 718, 061, $50 the total produc-
| ton; 1913 cents the average price per
pound, and $74, 130, ,185 the farm value
of the crop. The u. S. Tobacco Jour
nal calls the department to time for not
| separating the cigar leaf acreage from
southern type grown in Ohio, and then
| submits these comments on the flgureS:
With this exception the official state
ment as to the production Of the cigar
leaf supply in 1908 may be taken as
correct. According to the Annual In
ternal Revenue Report our cigar indus
try used up in 1907 in the production of
large cigars 142, 554, SAB pounds, and in
the production of little cigars 4,791, 1913
pounds or a total of lat, 525, ,845 pounds.
As twenty million pounds at least were
of foreign origin the consumption of
domestic cigar leaf amounted to about
one hundred and twenty and a
4 1 ]
the largest cigar producing year. Con-
sequently we have raised last year
about thirty eight million pounds more
| than are strictly required for the cigar
industry. But there are about thirty
million pounds consumed now by the
scrap factories, some millions also by
manufacturers of smoking tobacco and
a few million pounds exported, not to
speak of the waste and trash that has
to be thrown out altogether. If, there
| fore, our cigar industry should return