The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1913-05-02
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES


Tobacco growers must resort to wat
ering their plant beds if the present
dry weather continues or there will be
a great shortage of plants when the
transplanting season arrives. The cold,
dry winds that prevailed so much dur
ing April have proven disastrous to the
early starting of the seed beds. Ere
quent watering of the beds and care
full watching that they do not dry out
is necessary now or failure of plants
will occur. Don't trust to luck and ex-
pect good results.
That the Cuban tobacco crop will be
larger than that of the preceding year
is now we'll established fact. Har-
vest time is fast approaching the end,
and conservative estimates are now be-
ing made. The tobacco is said to be of
light weight, good aroma and fine tex
ture. The volume of the crop will ex-
ceed that of 1912, when 525, 900 bales
were produced, by 10000 bales.
President A. L. Sylvester, of the
American Cigar Co., states that the
early reports regarding their losses in
the flood were entirely without founda-
ton. He says in part: Il do not think
that our total loss, covering the five
plants in Dayton and Marshfield, will
be over $50, 1000. Practically all of this
damage was to the buildings. Go not
believe that the leaf tobacco was dam
aged over 5000. The reason for this
is that our manager in the Ohio district
had had practically all of the leaf to-
bacco in the several buildings moved to
the upper floors, in anticipation of re-
ceiving the new crop. Consequently
there was little leaf on the lower floors,
although what was there was dam
aged.
The tobacco industry, and especially
the cigar tobacco industry, is to be
tariff revision by the present admins
tration. The clause in regard to it was
written into the bill without word of
warning or an opportunity for hear
ing from the tobacco industry. The
most prominent provision is for abso-
Lutte free trade between the Philippine
Islands and the United States in to-
bacco and cigars. AS those islands
produce large amounts of tobacco and
are themselves large importers from
sat8aere countries, their total manufac-
tured product is immense, and II al
lowed to enter our markets without
duty will seriously affect the tobacco
industry The tact that the admins
tration has declared that the farmer
never needed to be protected and that
''what the people use must be cheap, "
coupled with the proposed average re-
duction of so per cent in the protection
of all farm products, creates situa-
tion not at all promising to those who
depend upon the tobacco industry.
For years there has been made an
attempt to invent machine by which
tobacco stems can be incorporated into
cigars Oscar Hammerstein claims to
now have such a machine, thus saving
about one fourth of the leaf The ap-
paratus is described as simple, stand
ing about three feet high and in ap-
pearance resembles an old-fashioned
clothes wringer propped up on four
legs. Encircling the two rollers at the
center are two brass bands of ferrules
with corrugations running the long
way. The operator sits at the machine,
feeds the leaf, stem first, between the
rollers and it passes out on the other
side exactly as linen collar would be
fed through a clothes wringer. The
operator takes care that the nld-rlb
passes through at the point at which
the brass bands encircle the rollers.
These bands do not entirely fatten the
stem, but corrugate it lengthwise from
end to end and apparently render it
pliable and combustible, being assisted
in the process by moisture which is au-
tomatically applied to the brass bands
by means of thick wick.
The first issue of the Miamsburg
News to reach this office since the late
flood swept down the Miami valley in
Ohio reached us during the week. This
paper is devoted almost exclusively to
an account of the great calamity which
it describes in interesting detail. For
itself the paper says: For nearly
three weeks the News office force and
numbers of assistants have been work
ing heroically and digging mud, remov-
ing debris and washing type for the
purpose of getting out paper. The
work has been tremendous, just the
same as all the other business men,
and at last things have been partially
prepared for printing sheet of re-
duced size" The estimate Of the losses
to tobacco packers in that city is also
given as follows: "Uuited Cigar Co.,
A. s. Cans, S1O0, 600; H. Tietig & Son,
$50, 900; c.. O. Shupert, $50, 900; Mer-
cereau, $40, ,0OO; Kaffenberg, $40, 900;
Kraussman, SIS, 900; Goldsmith & Block,
ST, 900; Linder, So, 500. The G. H. &
D. passenger depot and records were
all swept away, and the big freight de-
pot broken in two. Miamisburg was
practically isolated for week no tel
egraph, telephone, papers, and scanty
mail brought from Franklin in autos.
The Methodist church, the only church
not invaded by the flood, speedily threw
open the parlors of the church to be
r7CoJ g. rn11rnOcoc and fhn