The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1916-02-18

NOTE BOOK SKETCHES
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS


The peculiar feature of the buying this
season is the capacity of the stemmers
to take it over, for no previous crop
ever yielded so large a percentage of
low grade leaf. Between the exporters
and the stemming concerns fully 25
million pounds of crop which the ag-
ricultural department estimates at sc
millions will first or last be absorbed. 1t
can readily be seen therefore that only
a very small percentage of the crop
will be handled for binder purposes and
the needs in binders of the manufac-
turers until the 1916 crop is ready for
consumption will be drawn very largely
from old stocks or other states. 1t IS
generally conceded that the market was
never more bare of old stocks of cigar
leaf than it is at the present time. So
the prospects for short supply were
seldom ever more prominent than the
conditions now point to. The larger
manufacturing concerns probably are
we'll fortified, but it is the medium and
smaller manufacturers who are most
likely to be caught in the pinch.
~
A prominent Water Street packer
has the following to say in the N. Y.
Leaf on the tobacco situation: 81 can
remember back thirty ears-probably
some years more vividly than others
but L have never seen the situation
more acute with respect to raw mate
rial. It has never been such serious
problem, how we are to supply the
needs Of the manufacturers. The bind
er scarcity has been generally under
stood and appreciated. Before we are
many months older the filler situation
will be almost as bad. Some of the
large manufacturers have covered Their
requirements; others are doing so now.
But what is the middle-siZ and small
er manufacturer going to do? The old
Pennsylvania has been absorbed, and
most of the 1915 crop is in the hands of
q few firms. Wisconsin has gone to
the stemmers. If the 1915 crop pro-
duces, say 20, 900 cases, it is drop in
the bucket. The Ohio situation is hell.
The crop is dangerous and inferior gen
orally, and has been bought up at
enormously high prices. Throughout
the country generally the crop is not
more than 60 per cent of normal crop.
Often when predictions of this sort
have been made, the manufacturers
have doubted and got away with it.
This time there is no escaping the facts
as have outlined them. The man who
doubts will be wrong
-
That the many situations growing
out of the war are beginning to present
a serious problem to manufacturers in
many lines of the tobacco industry is
evident from the warnings that are
constantly being issued to the trade as
regards supplies and prices. The cigar
box industry is affected at present by
the rapidly growing shortage of cedar
logs, due to the fact that there is a
lack of vessels operating from the
source of supply to the ports of the
United States, and also because of the
fact that the cargoes of those still op-
Grating consist, principally of sugar.
AS a result of this the cigar box manu-
facturers after waiting for q return to
normal conditions have found manufac-
turing costs increasing so rapidly that
they have finally been forced to in
crease their prices. Aside from Cuba,
which produces the cedar used in max
ing the better grade of cigar boxes
used in this country, source of sup
ply also exists in South America and
Mexico. The revolution in the latter
country prevents any hope of securing
cedar from that source. The lack Of
steamers carrying logs from South
America to United States ports offers
no encouragement in the way of help
from that country. The cigar box in
dustry, as we'll as the cigar manufac-
turing trade, is also affected by condi-
tions in the lithographing business.
Inks have increased rapidly in price and
the scarcity of dyes adds to the seri-
BUSINESS of this situation. The high
price of copper, which is the principal
ingredient of bronze, much used on
bands and labels, handicaps this pro-
duction. At the beginning of the war
the difficulties of securing imported
labels were somewhat offset by the
fact that many of the larger and bet
ter equipped lithographing plants in
this country were able to produce labels
and bands very similar to the German
process. The bronze work is one of
the most effective parts of the better
grade of labels, and consequently the
scarcity OF this color, together with
the high prices, will work hardship
for those cigar manufacturers who are
so unfortunate as to have failed to an
ticipate this condition. Smoking and
chewing tobacco manufacturers are be-
ginning to complain of the shortage of
licorice and the intimation that the
prices of tobaccos in which this mater
ial is used will be subjected to an ad-
vance. The essential elements of fer
tilizer are exceptionally scarce, and as
a result the prices are increasing rap
idly. Farmers in the Connecticut Val
ley anticipate an increase of from 25 to
35 per cent. Potash, in the form of
potash salts, is to be had only in COM
mercial fertilizer. A very small sup
ply comes from Japan and some from
this country. All of this, however,
will be absorbed for some time to come
by the chemical industries of this coun-
try which are suffering for lack of it.
Nitrate, another essential. is scarce, as
well as expensive, owing to its use IN