The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1912-05-03

NOTE BOOK SKETCHES

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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Mayor Holtan of Stoughton takes is
sue with the assessor of that city in his
effort to create the impression that to-
bacco is not paying it's share of taxes
levied, and insists it is poor policy to
against that industry. In
"a communication to local paper he
says: '1t cannot be denied that the
tobacco industry, like every other le-
.gitimate industry, is very helpful to
any place in which it happens to be
located. In Stoughton it gives employ
ment to large number of laborers at
a season of the year when the demands
upon the heads of families are heaviest
and most exacting. To drive such in
stitutions out of our city may appeal to
men who seek to divide 'unearned in
crement' through the powers of assess
ment and taxation, but it will strike
the average laboring man, dependent
upon his days work for living, as be-
ing more hurtful to him than to the in
dustry concerned"
Another reason why it will prove diff
ficult for assessors to arrive at "full
value" of tobacco on May 1st of each
year is the uncertainty of what the
actual value of any crop will be before
it has passed through the first sweat or
curing stage. Experience often proves
that tobacco which looked sound and
healthy when it was packed into cases
came through the sweat in such dam
aged condition as to lose half or more
of it's expected value. So long as to-
bacco is subject to the damage of black
rot. must and mold in the curing pro-
cess, how can any assessor foretell its
value six months or year later when
the same tobacco bas an established
value in market? Here is proposition
that would puzzle even a tax commits
sioner. How can a farmer who has his
crop on hand May 1st know what price
he is going to get for it when it is sold,
or how can the assessor help him ar
rive at the ''full value'' before it is
marketed? The only just and reason
able way is TO put an approximate
value on tobacco Ina it's unsweated con-
dition the first year, and no unbending
rule the taxing authorities can apply
will prove fair to all parties interested.
-
Rose & Wobbe, leaf packers of New
York, have leased 25 acres and four to-
.bacco sheds from E. M. Granger OF
Melrose, Conn.,, and will plant 25 acres
lin tobacco that will be primed. They
will have to build additional sheds to
care for this quantity of tobacco. In
addition to the above, Rose & Wobbe
have leased three other farms, and in
the coming year will plant 80 acres in
tobacco in Connecticut. They will not
raise any tobacco by the shade-grown
method, but in all probability will prime
their crops.
***
The extension of tobacco production
in the upper Wisconsin counties is go
ing on from year to year. In several
of these counties new tobacco ware
houses are being built yearly. One of
1.-THE enthusiastic tobacco men in the
upper part of the state is.John S. Owen
of the Owen Lumber Co. of Eau Claire.
He never tires telling of his success in
growing tobacco on his fine farm in
Chippewa county.
The experience Of York county, Pa,
farmers with Burley tobacco was dis
astrous one, according to II. c.. Rein
hold, of East Petersburg, Lancaster
county, before meeting OF tobacco
raisers in Lancaster. Mr.. Reinhold,
who has made a careful study of the
result of the experiments with Burley
in that region, said that conditions of
soil and climate tend to distort it into a
form somewhat similar to the seed to-
bacco, which is grown successfully
there. 1t was brought out that 80 per
cent of the Burley crop is purchased by
the American Cigar Co., Is per cent is
shipped abroad, and about 5 per cent
sold to Independent firms. 1t is not a
wrapper, filler or binder tobacco, but is
used for the tobacco plug trade exclu-
sively.
In review of ''high prices and crop
production" contained in the April
Crop Reporter, issued by the Agricul-
tural Department, and based upon re-
ports from consular and diplomatic Of
ficers, it is stated that the world crop
of tobacco increased only about 6 per
cent between the two periods, 1900-1904
and 1905-1909; that is from an average
of 2,279, 900, 900 pounds yearly in the
first period to 2, 424, 900, 900 pounds an
nually in the second period. Continu-
ing, the Crop Reporter says: ''The
eleven products here enumerated,