The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1914-09-11
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES


This has been another busy week
with the tobacco growers who are
crowding the work of the tobacco har-
vest with all possible dispatch. A few
cool nights have caused some uneasi-
ness as we'll as acting as an extra spur
to hustle, putting on additional help
wherever it is possible. We are get
ting so near the line of the first frosts
now that growers appreciate they are
taking chances if the crop is not speed
lily secured. There will be considerable
tobacco outstanding at the close of the
present week owing to the slowness in
ripening, occasioned by the cool wealth
er, unless frost warnings are sent out
and then the fields would be slashed
down very quickly. Much of the corn
needs from two to three weeks yet to
mature so that tobacco is not the only
crop in danger of an early frost. Be-
sides, fully 65 per cent Of the tobacco
crop is safely housed in the curing
sheds. The later fields are turning out
some very fine, large sized leaf which
compares favorably with that of other
years, and outside of the stormed dis
tricts is reasonably sound, which fact
is proving one of the surprises of the
season. The later. planting therefore
is destined to yield the most desirable
binders of the year if favored with sat-
isfactory curing weather from this on.
-
This country does not raise all the
cigar leaf required for the cigars it
manufactures, but imports 100000 to
5000, 900 pounds annually of leaf suit
able for cigar wrappers, nearly all OF
which comes from Sumatra via the
Netherlands. This traffic will be more
or less impeded throughout the war, is
the verdict of the New England Home
stead Wrapper imports for the past
II months have been in about the usual
quantity Import values of wrappers
has been steadily advancing for II
months, and for this May was 81. 80 rer
pound. We import % to 28 mil, on
pounds of cigar filters as Cuban leaf,
| the import value of which has advanced
from around 40c early last winter to
53c per pound this May. Cuban i'm
ports have been running slightly less
| so far this season than last. We eX-
port no cigar leaf and no manufactured
cigars. Thus the cigar industry can
| only be helped and not hindered by the
war scare Imports of cigarette to-
bacco from Turkey, both Europe and
Asia, have jumped from IA million
| pounds in 1911 to some 35 million pounds
in the fiscal year ending June 80, 1914.
Its import value runs from 40 to 60c
per pound. This supply is likely to be
| more or less interfered with. Germany
! has sometimes shipped nearly 2,OO0,O 600
| pounds of low grade smoking tobacco
yearly to this country, but that will
now be cut off. Total value of tobacco
| leaf imported in the last fiscal year
cigar wrappers about 8, all other about
%, or an aggregate of 80 millions OF
dollars. From present appearances the
New England cigar leaf crop will be
worth more money to growers than
| that of last year, assuming that prices
continue to show say 20 per cent ad-
vance, as indicated by scattering re-
turns from tobacco correspondents.
] Roundly speaking, the 1913 crop of
cigar leaf, as sold by growers, showed
an average value somewhere around
15c per pound, or $25, 900, 900 total On
the basis of 18c for the 1914 crop, the
harvest should return growers fully %
/ 0f Hn1I
over last year. Our big export trade
in heavy leaf is in manufactured
which is largely bought by foreign ma
tions to be manufactured into smoking
| tobaccos and cigarettes as a govern
ment monopoly. The German demand
is likely to be cut off short by the war,
but it's imports fell from Al million
pounds three years ago to little ris-
ing 80 millions this year. The United
States raises from 35 to 40 per cent of
| the worlds tobacco crop, one year with
another. Practically all of the heavy
leaf imported by other countries comes
from the United States.
The insurance companies have de-
vised a very interesting policy for
growers of shaded tobacco who desire
to insure their cheesecloth coverings
and crops against fire. The cheese
cloth is very infammable and if it
burns the tobacco underneath is liable
to be damaged not only by the fire but
by the heat of the sun, to which it is
unaccustomed. These policies start
around the latter part of May or the
first of June, when the tobacco is being
set out under shade, at $500 per acre.
The value of the policy increases SO
per day per acre for 78 days, by which
time harvesting begins, whereupon it
decreases at the rate of SIS per day