The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1916-08-18
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES


Seldom if ever has field buying of the
tobacco crop been driven harder than
during the past week, nor has greater
recklessness been exhibited in the maxi
ing of sales. Fierce competition has
driven up prices until the growers
scarcely know what to ask. And in
the main it is prospects largely that
contracts have been closed on. Scarcely
any of the crop has been harvested, not
over one-third of the crop has yet been
topped and much of it from four to five
weeks away from the shed. So the
fate of the crop in general depends on
the weather conditions of the coming
few weeks. 1t needs an abundance of
warm days to mature tobacco from this
stage on. The season is late at best.
Will the growers who have sold their
crops at Is cents or better wait for the
tobacco to ripen before shedding? The
temptation will be strong to harvest
unripe leaf this year, and then the
troubles of the packer have only just
commenced. For the benefit of all
concerned we hope the crop passes all
critical stages to the curing sheds, but
there is whole lot of contingencies
that might arise yet.
/. Is
The tobacco growers of the state who
have kept themselves posted on market
conditions have been able to hold the
situation we'll in hand this season. The
great majority of them looked with
disfavor upon the field buying move
ment, preferring to wait until the crop
was. made before contracting for its
sale, and to combat the opportunities
of the buyers they laid penalty of at
least a couple cents pound which the
large operators in their anxiety to con-
troll the more promising prospects have
very generally paid. When farmer
is offered few cents per pound more
than he expected to obtain for his to-
bacco, it is quite apt to overcome any
scruples he might have regarding the
propriety of the transaction. It has
taken some hammering to break down
the prejudice but it has finally been ac-
complished though it has cost the buy
ers good round figure to do it. If
every thing goes right until delivery
time the Wisconsin tobacco growers
will be paid the best prices they have
received since the 1906 crop, and bring
into the state several millions of out
side money that will be reflected in an
impetus given to business in the grow
ing sections.
~
A summary of the August crop re-
port of the agricultural department is
two million pounds short this year. To-
bacco in New England is pronounced to
be extra fine. Some improvement is
shown in New York, while the Pennsyl-
vania crop is somewhat late. The crops
in Ohio and Wisconsin have suffered
some damage from the hot, dry wealth
er but as the tobacco plant has won
derful recuperative power, the late
rains are likely to help in promoting a
healthy development. Tobacco seems
to have suffered this year none of the
drawbacks which more often than not
aff1ict it's usefulness and the quantity
of the yield. This must prove cheerful
news to the cigar leaf trade. The ci-
gar industry will require larger sup
ply than for many years past. If on
top of the present shortage of leaf
stocks, we had short and damaged
crops, the cigar industry would have
found itself in very bad shape, both as
to sufficiency of supply and the prices
the shortage would create. For, as
conditions are at present, prices are
bound to rise anyhow.
***
Among the papers left by Richard
Harding Davis. the brilliant American
war correspondent and author, his
brother discovered the following mes
sage written apparently a few days
previous to his death: "Men at home
who breathe tobacco smoke as freely
as they breathe air, can not know how
much tobacco means to the man in the
trenches, or rather the loss of it means.
During the Spanish-American war, in
the United States army regulations,
tobacco was officially classed as of
fcers' supplies 1t was considered a
luxury When | cabled from Cuba that
our soldiers in Cuba needed tobacco my
appeal was ridiculed and was asked If
our soldiers did not also want silk pa
jamas and eau-de-cologne. The man
who has never gone without tobacco
and who could fill his pouch or case at
the street corner still thought tobacco
luxury. 1t was Sir Frederick Treves,
during the South African war, who
made people Understand that for the
soldiers tobacco was a necessity. A
man can hunger; he can suffer cold,
fatigue and wounds; these things he
can endure if he can smoke. | have
| been.a. looker-on in seven wars, and |
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