The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1916-03-10
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES

MANY TOBACCO growers VIII no uOuDC
find that their last years seed will not
sprout well this spring. The abnormal
season last year was unfavorable for
seed production as well as for growing
the Leaf. termination tests made at
the Experiment Station Indicate that in
some cases the vitality of last years
tobacco seed is very low. Growers are
therefore advised to test their seed
early. in order that they may make ar
rangements to get good seed if it should
fail to sprout. No doubt many grow
ers will still have on hand some one to
five-year-old seed which will usually be
found to be satisfactory as to germinat-
ing capacity. To test tobacco seed, it
is only necessary to scatter few seeds
on g moist blotter placed between two
plates or in some vessel where the blot
ter will not dry out too rapidly Leave
them at ordinary room temperature for
five to six days when termination will
ordinarily be completed. The Expert
ment Station is also prepared to clean
and test seed for the growers without
any charges for such services being
made. Seed can be sent by mail to the
Horticultural Department, University
of Wisconsin. Madison, Wisconsin. The
grower should enclose name and ad-
dress.
-
4 This is the advice of the secretary of
the Tobacco Growers association,
printed in this column twenty-five years
ago, that loses none of it's value with
age: Il firmly believe that farmers
should not during the coming year raise
an additional amount of acreage, but
should raise it better. How is it that
almost every season some men sell
readily at good prices? The secret is
that those growers put in just the
amount they can attend in good shape
and i'm good season, getting more from
four acres than some more careless
ones get from eight and in many cases
double the price. l would rather have
the money from one acre well raised on
good prepared land than three more
done.0
"a"
The generally adverse conditions un-
der which all the 1915 cigar seaf crops
were raised has led many prominent
packers to go as lightly as possible in
that crop, says the New York Leaf.
The general character of the tobacco
and the desire to have material for
business on hand has led some of these
same packers to invest in old tobaccos.
This has been responsible for quiet
absorption of old Wisconsin and old
Pennsylvania, including even some of
the 1909 crop of the latter 1t may be
stated that these old t0baccos were
bought at prices that are less than
would have been the cost of buying the
tobacco in 1910, 1911 or 1912 and hold
ing it until the present cate. Those
merchants who have chosen this course
have this on their side: They know
exactly what they are getting, where
as those who are investing in the 1915
crop will not know until the latter part
of this year what they have got. This
is not to be taken as meaning that
there is no good tobacco in the 1915
crops of cigar leaf, for there is a GER
tain amount of good in every one of
them, and as matter of fact packers
who held off and refused to buy now
express the wish that they had bought
some at least when there was a chance
of picking. But it is true that the 1915
crops are recognized by the trade as
being generally hazardous, as being
high priced tobacco that is not up to
the average in quality as general
thing.
'Winston-Salem is supplying one
fourth of all the chewing and smoking
tobacco consumed in the United States,
besides exporting vast quantities to
foreign lands. This statement is taken
from the report of the Commissioner of
Internal Revenue for the first quarter
of the present fiscal year and from pri- |
vate advices from Washington, as to |
the second quarter, which ended De-
cember 31st, last
'tYour city is making one-seventh of |
all tobacco products chewing and |
smoking tobacco, cigars, cigarettes and /
snuff = manufactured in the United |
States. Your manufacturers are pay
ing on an average about $37, 900 day |
revenue taxes to the government and
the amount is increasing from month
to month. When your government
much the handsomest in the
state, was completed last July at cost
Of S25O,00 your newspapers made the
statement that the taxes paid In your
city to Uncle Sam for the first eight
Jays of its occupancy would pay for it.
Since September, it has taken only a
fraction over seven average days col
ectlons here to equal it's cost.
Winston Salem is shipping on an
average each week day to all parts of