The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1914-05-15
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES


The prospects for increasing the acre
age of the 1914 tobacco crop are again
handicapped by disastrous tornado
which swept across the southern part
of Dane county Monday morning,
through the very heart of the large to-
bacco growing sections of the state,
demolishing curing sheds that will be
hard to replace the present season.
Probably not less than 800 or 400 sheds
have been razed, broken and reduced
to kindling, involving a loss running
close up to half million dollars. Aside
from the pecuniary loss the growers
have sustained, they can neither secure
the help nor devote the time to repair
ing all the damage before new crop
can be raised. Some intended acreage
must be reduced.
The tobacco dealers in this state are
unwilling to bear their share of state
expenses, and from GAINESVILLE and Ed
gerton thousands of cases of tobacco
were shipped out of the state to escape
taxation before May 1st. They are
willing to buy our. product, willing to
use our city help in getting it ready
for the market, but when it comes to
paying taxes, ship it to some state
where the tax dodger is favored
Brodhead Register.
The above is so full of misrepresen-
tations that they ought not to go un-
challenged In the first place the deal
ers who buy Wisconsin tobacco are not
unwilling to bear their share of state
expenses. Every case Of tobacco
shipped out of the state prior to May
1st paid taxes assessed upon it in 1913,
and good stiff ones at that, much high
er than are levied against such prop
erty in other states. It was the prop
erty of nonresident corporations and
manufacturers who did not propose to
get soaked a second time when the
rate of taxation was cheaper at eastern
storage points and the tobacco would
eventually be consumed at eastern fac
tories. Under anything like fair treat
ment in taxation matters, such as they
enjoy in other states, these concerns
would much prefer to allow their goods
to remain in Wisconsin storehouses un-
til needed, but constantly increasing
taxes. here are held to be so burden
some as to prompt the movement to
get away from the imposition. There
is but little sentiment in a business
proposition of this character. Our
local dealers, however, are not SO for
tunate in being able to get away and
have to stand for it, frequently paying
taxes on the same tobacco two or three
times, which is unusual for any product
of the soil. AS a matter Of policy,
wouldn't it be better to secure a more
moderate amount of taxes from these
foreign corporations, such as is assess
ed against their tobacco in other states,
for instance, than to lose it all? 1t is
outside capital that mainly moves the
tobacco crop of this state. 1t is the
millions of these eastern corporations
and manufacturers that employs our
help in warehouse handling and adds
thrift and wages to the packing points.
1t is not impossible by overreaching to
lose this business to our state and drive
the handling of the great bulk of our
tobacco to other states where falrer
treatment in regard to taxation is ac-
corded the tobacco trade. These are
things to think about when our taxing
authorities are aiming to squeeze every
cent of taxes possible from an over
burdened people.
That tobacco loses much more weight
when cured on the stalk than when the
leaves are picked in the field and cured
separately has been demonstrated by
an investigation of the u. S. Depart
ment of Agriculture, the results of
which have just been published in Bull
letin 70 under the title of Research
Studies on the Curing of Leaf Tobac-
CO." The experiments were carried on
for four years at Connecticut grow
er's farm. They showed that for the
leaves of the cigar-wrapper type the
average loss in dry weight in curing
picked leaves was from Il to Is per
cent, while leaves cured on the stalk
lost approximately twice as much. The
difference is explained by the passing
L. -