The farmer and mechanic., 1915-10-26
BION III. BUTLER.

over much or North Carolina sees DUR
ing the early summer the growing
fields Of tobacco, and imagines he has
come in touch with the story of the
industry. But until he has stood on
the floor of the warehouses at Wilson,
and been in the tobacco factories at
Durham he has only seen the fringes
Of his romance.
/ have no intention Of glorifying to-
bacco. That has been done by the
devotees of the plan. For myself I
abominate the untidy practices that
tobacco fosters. All of which has
nothing to do with this history.
Wilson is the place to see bright
leaf tobacco when the harvest has
ended and the crop has been made.
Here is the greatest bright leaf mar
ket in the world, and here is the
greatest tobacco market in the State
Nothing but bright leaf is sold at
Wilson. But Of that they expect to
sell this year thirty million pounds or
more.
Business Of a Community.
Tobacco at Wilson is a business Of
community. You go into one of the
enormous warehouses and involuntar-
lily you reach down to one of the piles
Of tobacco and pick up bunch of
the tied up leaf. Before you have
been about Wilson long you have
learned to give the bunch that little
fiirt that shakes out the folds and
opens out the leaf so you can see the
quality. You stretch it out and rub it
between thumb and finger. You hold
1t to your nose. Not that it is your
tobacco to be sold, or that you want
TO buy. Perhaps you are interested
in the general condition of the crop
or of the market, but whatever the
reason you find yourself looking over
the stock on the floor and watching
the sales, and the course of the days
proceedings.
Tobacco is sold at auction. The
farmer brings his product to the ware
house where it is arranged in a neat
pile on the floor. Around it. in most
precise order are hundreds of other
piles. They are convenient distances
apart, all in exact rows, and when the
sale starts off at 9 o'clock the auction
eer, followed by the buyers, begins at
one corner of the warehouse and
moves rapidly down the first row, back
the next, and so on for hours to the
end. The various tobacco companies
have buyers on the floor and when the
first pile is offered by the auctiOneer
the bidding starts. In a curious Ian
guage, Ineligible only to the ad-
vanced degree workers in tobacco the
sale begins. At times a word is intro
duced that is familiar to the outsider
but it takes a man with quick action
who can follow the dialect and un-
derstand more than one word in fifty
Five to ten seconds will close a sale
and the crowd moves to the next pile
Buyers Trained Men.
At first thought you doubt if buy
ers have time enough to determine
what to pay for the tobacco, but they
are trained men, and a glance at tht
leaf tells them what they want 20 pa,
for it. If one buyer guesses wrons
his rival from another concern il
quick TO push the price up a little
and then it goes little further unit
all are satisfied they will go n,
higher. 1t is really the simplest thin:
in the world instead of a complicate,
method. and it is about the only wa
that the millions of pounds of Tobacco
raised in the State could be handled
Tobacco varies from a cent a poun
up to a dollar or so, owing to tn
quality, and only trained men can de
termine its grade. To to sell
like corn or potatoes are sold wOul
be impossible, and nobody would tax
the risk Of buying it at the cOuntr
stores as other things are bought S
big central warehouses are establishe
where buyers may buy great quaint
ties. and where they can do enoug
work to earn the salaries that compe
tent buyers must be paid
The price Of tobacco is fixed by tn
quality of the leaf. That which wi
make fancy wrappers for plug wi
bring fancy prices, and the buyers a
know what to give for it. That whic
will make good smoking tobacco fl
pipes the buyers know, and they kno
what they can pay for a pound of /
because they know what it has to sc
for when it is manufactured an
packed. That which is of low qualit
and which must have q higher quail
mixed with it to sell at all the buye
know, and they put the price on
low. Tobacco sells at auction becau
the buyers know Immediately VIII
they will give for certain oualiti
and they are able to determine Il
quality at sight. That is why tn
buy all the tobacco from first hand
and why merchants and brokers c,
not buy tobacco. The merchant
not familiar with grades, therefore