The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1912-04-19
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES


bacco growing state in the Union?
This is the question recently PROFOUND
ed by The Madison Journal and it is
easily answered. Just as long as the
present demand for Wisconsin binders
continues and the largest manufacture
ing concerns are willing to pay good
remunerative prices for the crop
months before it is ready for market
tobacco growing will remain leading
crop of a number of counties as it has
for 25 or 80 years past. 1t is barely
possible that Dane county is raising too
much tobacco to the exclusion of other
farm crops or to obtain the best re-
suits IA, 900 acres is large area to
devote in a single county, but there is
abundant territory in the newer coun-
ties not yet interested in producing the
crop to supply all the needs of the mar
ket even if Dane county growers de-
eide to curtail their acreage. Dairy
farmers are already complaining that
they cannot make any money with but
ter at 80 cents at the present high
prices of feed, so wherein could the to-
bacco grower seek to improve his con-
dition by dropping paying crop. The
simple fact of the matter is that dairy
ing and tobacco growing ought to go
hand in hand; one helps keep up the
fertility of the farm so much needed
for the other crop. Under normal con-
ditions both ought to be money makers
for the farmer and gradual change in
this direction is certainly going on.
The prospects for the coming season is
rather towards an increase of tobacco
acreage in Wisconsin rather than de-
crease as suggested above.
*
The following information on the
care of seed beds is timely: The to-
bacco seed is very small, consequently
contains only very small amount of
reserve food for the developing en-
bryo. Very soon after the seed has
sprouted, it must rely on it's own roots
to obtain plant food from the soil. For
this reason there is period of two or
three weeks just after the plants ap-
pear above the surface of the soil, that
they apparently make no growth. Dur
ing this time all the material the small
leaves are capable of celebrating goes
towards the formation of the root sys-
tenn which is to furnish the elements of
plant food from the soil. When the
root system finally gets large enough
to supply more food than is necessary
for the production of roots, the leaves
begin to grow. At this critical period
in the life of the plant, it is essential
that the beds receive frequent and
careful attention. The soil should not
be allowed to dry out to any depth, as
this may materially check or kill some
plants. Cold water should not be used.
1t is better to let it stand in barrels or
tanks for day or two until the chill
has been removed. The water should
not be flooded over the plants, but be
put on so as to allow it to soak into the
soil gradually Water thoroughly and
rarely instead of small applications at
frequent intervals. Each time the bed
is watered the soil should be made wet
to the depth of three or four inches,
when the plants are still SMALL and six
or seven inches when the plants are
large. The surface soil may then be
allowed to dry off occasionally without
injury to the plants, and feeding roots
will go down into the soil instead of re-
naming on the surface. Hand weed
ing the bed should start as soon as the
the weeds are of sufficient size to be
readily pulled.
The wrapper situation, as regards
the requirements of the manufacturer
of five-cent cigars, is conceded by ev-
cry one that is in any degree familiar
with the situation as being anything
but pleasing and satisfactory. And the
difficulty does not consist of what prop
erly and accurately might be termed as
shortage of wrappers, but merely as
a shortage of light wrappers. But in
the present state of trade the latter
connotes the former. The truth of the
matter is that the manufacturer of
nickel cigars, if he is unable to turn
out cigars wrapped in light tobacco,
has his cup running over with trouble.
The craze for light wrappers on the
rpart of the smoking public can be han
died, so far as the smoker of the higher
class of cigars is concerned. The man
who smokes clear Havanas or imported
Cuban cigars usually has acquired some
knowledge of tobacco. He can be con-
vinced that a cigar with dark wrap
per is not necessarily strong cigar.
He has in many instances studied the
tobacco question and knows that the
more tobacco has been seasoned the
darker it gets. And he is not so in
sistent upon being given cigar with a
liver-colored wrapper. More than any
other smoker. the man who prefers
clear Havanas is discriminating smok-
er, and probably owing in a measure to
the fact that Cuba does not produce, as
rule, beautiful wrappers, ne has been
trained to enjoy his cigar with his pal
ate and not with his eye. The smoker
of nickel cigars is not so reasonable.
1t goes without saying that the keen
differentiation in the matter of aroma,
taste and quality that is possible in the
higher class cigars is not possible with
nickel cigar. Ninety cigars out of
every hundred made in the United
States are nickel cigars. The five-cent
cigar is the smoke of the non-discrim-
mating masses. The result is that a