The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1917-02-16

he is determined not to be bilked, is to
refuse to join in the chase of field buy
ing sand wait until the crop is in the
bundle before making his purchases.
Otherwise he is quite likely to have to
putSup with the imposition until such a
time as saner methods of buying pre-
vail It is hard to believe that the to-
bacco grower should not be possessed
of as much common honesty as the av-
.erage individual, however.
~
There seems to be some trouble In
Pennsylvania with growers disposed to
ignore their contracts made earlier in
the season before boom prices struck
that district, and actions have been
brought in court to test the farmers
right to resell his tobacco. In order
to stop the alleged practice the Seed
Growers Co., a corporation of Lancas-
ter engaged in the buying and packing
of. tobacco, filed bill in equity against
humber of farmers and j. E. Stoner,
"a eobacco dealer of Eititz. The grow
ers named in the suit had raised SO
acres of tobacco and on Sept. 16, 1916,
it is set forth, contracted to sell it to
the company at Is cents for wrappers,
6 cents for filters and 3 cents for scrap.
It is claimed that only six acres were
delivered, amounting to 84Sl pounds Of
wrappers and 1401 pounds of filters, and
that the growers refused to deliver the
crop of the remaining 80 acres, but in
violation of the contract sold it to
Stoner, who at the time the suit was
entered had already received part Of
the same and was about to receive the
remainder In their bill in equity the
company asks the court to restrain the
growers from delivering the tobacco in
question to Stoner; that Stoner be en-
joined from receiving it; that he be re-
quired to hold the tobacco already de-
livered until it is turned over to the
company and that he be enjoined from
paying for the tobacco he contracted to
buy. A temporary injunction was
granted The court intimated that the
equity suit was not a proper ones that
this was dispute of dollars and cents,
and if the growers violated their con-
tracts they could be sued for damages.
Their attorneys then handed briefs in
the, case to the court and decision
will be made later, but unless the au-
thorities cited by counsel for the COM
pany change the mind of the court the
bill in equity will be dismissed.
*x*
Tobacco growers in 1915 complained
very generally in New England of con-
dititions which were described as re-
sulting from tobacco sick" soil, es
pecially on land that had been cropped
for many successive years in tobacco.
Last season the trouble was by no
means as general, but still made its ap-
pearance Certain spots in individual
fields would show very poor tobacco
right alongside good tobacco on the
same land. Last season the COnnec-
ticut experiment station made num-
ber of soil analyses to see il there was
any discernible difference in the soil
content of the poor spots and good
spots. The average lime requirement
Of the normal soil was 1870 pounds,
that of sick soil 1912 pounds. In the
seven classes the lime recruitment in
the soil of the normal part of the field
was less than that on the sick portion. |
In four cases it was greater. The diff |
ferencesN are too small to be significant |
and apparently the question of acidity |
has nothing to do with the conditions
described according to the station bull
letin. Further analysis to show the !
complete composition of the good and |
poor soils developed likewise no sifinifi- |
cant variation. Tests were also made |
to see if there was too much water |
soluble salts in the spots which pro- |
duced poor tobacco. In one sample of |
soil producing good tobacco the amount |
of soluble lime was found to be much |
smaller than in all the samples produc- |
ing poor tobacco The Connecticut ex |
periments showed that the sstobac |
co sick" soils contained about t
four times as much soluble potash, |
soda, lime and magnesia as the good |
soils. Similar tests in Massachusetts
showed an average of twice as much
in sick soils as in good soils. All of
these tests for water-soluble salts were
made from land that was low-lying and
considered the wettest portions of the
particular field. IN. E. Homestead.