The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1916-01-14
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NOTE BOOK SKETCHES


only slightly under 1914. The estimate
for Wisconsin for the past year is
Al, 900 acres as against $4,000 in 1914
and 43, 900 in 1913. The yield per acre
is given at 900 pounds as against 118O
pounds for IA and '13. The average
selling price for the Is is cents as
against 75 for the IA and IL cents for
the '13 crop. The total value of last
seasons crop is estimated at So, 2l4,-
900, quite in contrast with that of the
'13 placed at over six million dollars.
ss
The revenue returns for the month
of November, 1915, show the produc-
ton Of full 1edged cigars on which
stamps were paid exceeded that OF the
similar month in 1914 by nearly e mil
lion. This is the Indication that the IN
dustry is getting back to normal pro-
portions, and is an indisputable evil
dence that prosperity is returning to
the cigar manufacturing trade. But
best of all, the increase of business was
shared by all lines of the tobacco IN
dustry. There is some reason there
fore for the trade journals to predict
greater activity of the leaf trade that
promises to. absorb all the accumula-
tions of old stocks before another crop
can be produced.
Asa New Years gift to the tobacco
trade the Interstate Commerce Com
mission handed down decision sus-
tanning every contention made by the
trade in the contest with the railroads
in the official classification. It was a
sweeping victory, a complete triumph,
and a vindication for the spirit of CO.
operation which has recently come into
evidence in the trade. For months the
producers of and dealers in cigar and
hogshead leaf tobacco, and the manu-
facturers OF cigars, and plug tobacco,
twist, cuttings, scraps, ETC., fought
shoulder to shoulder in common cause,
and the result is especially heartening
to those who have SO long advocated
united action in dealing with such mat
ters.
A correspondent writing of the New
England tobacco growers experience
of the past year, says: The average
grower is disposed to make the best Of
the situation to write the seasons re-
suits on the debit side of the ledger and
consider the account closed. A large
number of growers have, doubtless,
broken even on the 1915 crop and hum
dreds of others face only d small loss.
Here and there a grower has made a
pretty fair profit, but it is doubtful if
ssbig money! so-called, has been made
by single individual or corporation
From the standpoint of dollars and
cents, raisers of shaded tobacco have
Jared best. Scores Of small raisers of
sungrown tobacco saw their crops
wasted by the elements, either ruined
by hail or emaciated beyond hope by
the July rainfall l-.en inches OF it by
weather gauge measurement in some
tobacco towns. Though the season was
obviously unsatisfactory, there is no
note of encouragement from the grow
er who knows that good tobacco will
bring fancy prices next fall, and forth
with is bending his efforts to raise next
year crop which will atone for the
shortcomings of 1915 tobacco-and then
some.
The II. S. Tobacco Journal takes a
roseate view of business prospects for
the coming year as follows: Under
present favorable auspices the trade
and all its manufacturing branches may
be vouchsafed steadily increasing pro-
gress and expansion. With such vast
amounts of money in circulation. con-
sumption of the comforts of life, such
as tobacco products certainly are, is
bound to extend, not only quantitively
but also qualitatively. That manufac-
turers of cigars, tobacco and cigarettes
will get lions share of this blooming
prosperity, would be but stating a COM
mon-place observation, inasmuch as
these great industries of the tobacco
trade have not only held their own, but
even progressed and expanded during
the most distressing period we lately
passed through AS for the cigar leaf
trade, its prospects are of the bright
est, too We are fully aware of the
sinister misgivings and heartaches that
run through purveyors OF cigar leaf, on
account of some of the disqualifying
defects and scant quantity of last years
crops. But we wish the leaf trade to
remember that their prosperity de-
pends much less on a super perfect to-
bacco crop than on the generally pros
porous condition of the country. For
the best crops meet with disastrous in
vestment when they have to be ex-
plotted in a falling market, under gen
eral restraint of limited consumption
and unemployment In falling mar
ket, that is, in market distressed by
financial and commercial reverses, the
finest crops cannot be disposed of even
at bargain prices. But if the market
rises, as it is bound to do under such
prosperous prospects as now, any IN
dustry's- raw material, defects or no
defects, is sure of safe absorption at
ever-rising market values. The leaf
trade need not, therefore, worry IN the
least that its new supply is likely to
suffer from depreciation. There is only
one threatening speck on the bright