The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1918-11-15
MOTE aooK SKETCHES


A recent drop in the price of cigar
cuttings is quite likely to affect the
market of Wisconsin low grades. Cigar
manufacturers are offering cuttings at
20 cents which only short time ago
brought 36 cents. When cuttings can
be plentifully had the stemmers regu-
late the price to be paid for low grades
accordingly. Packers who have con-
tracted filters at exceptionally high tig-
ures this season will probably find it
difficult to unload them on the stem
ming concerns at anything like the fig
ures of a year ago. Having the ad-
vance knowledge they are likely to
govern themselves accordingly when
the xbalance of the crop is sold. BY
many manufacturers of scrap tobacco
cigar cuttings are preferred to stock
stemmed from low grades, but in the
event of scarcity the stemming con-
Germs take enormous quantities of low
grades to supply the deficiency.
/. *x*
A tobacco grower writing TO the
Stoughton Hub offers the following ad-
vice to his neighbors: Our advice TO
farmers is, Regulate your asking price
by she laws of supply and demand, not
by your greed; our advice to buyers is,
Play the game squarely by paying the
farmer what the laws of supply and de-
mayd warrant Subtle newspaper prop
aganda, designed to depress prices will
pay no dividends. The farmers can
pack and hold. They are not entirely
dependent on one crop. We have a
right to assume that the buyers who
Bought early at 40 and IL, at time
when the crop was subject to many
periis that it is no longer subject to,
knew what they were doing; and while
it is possible the demand for tobacco
may have diminished since then, it is
not at all probable; rather does the de-
mand loom up larger now. The buyers
who have paid higher prices are en-
titled to protection; for they must sell
in direct competition with other buyers
who hope to buy at their own figures
when farmers have been worked up to
selling frenzy by cunningly devised
newspaper propaganda having for its
object the depression of prices. Our
crop is the best we ever raised 1t cost
as more to raise it. It must not be
given away.
~
lust what the effect the end of the
war will have upon prices in this coun-
try is matter to which many members
of the trade are giving careful thought
and there seems to be divergence of
opinion. There are some who say that
the end of the war will see slowing
up of industry generally, the tobacco
business along with the rest, and there
are others who profess to see just the
reverse. It is pretty fairly certain that
in the beleaguered central empires the
tobacco supply has run very short. The
general belief is that next after food
stuffs, tobacco will be one of the COM
modities which they will demand. Nat
urally the cheaper grades will be in
greatest demand. There are several
types of tobacco that are cheaper than
the domestic cigar leaf of this country.
South America is said to be full Of it.
But while shipping to Holland was pos
sible, American tobaccos commanded
unheard of prices there. Holland, un-
less the Dutch have a capacity for the
consumption of tobacco that is beyond
human credence, did not consume all
the tobacco that was shipped to that
country Somebody wanted tobacco
badly enough to pay three and four
times what it would ordinarily bring.
s."
1of 4L1+ ri
shipping conditions have been restored
the import and export business of this
country will receive an impetus is daily
growing among the members of the leaf
tobacco industry. More than one of
the large concerns that hitherto have
confined their efforts to domestic busi-
ness are planning for large export
business to be done after the war.
Large packers of domestic tobaccos are
not the only ones who have an eye on
the export trade after the war. A
large Dutch syndicate is known to have
had buyers in this country continuous
ly, picking up tobacco wherever it could
be had and storing it until the time
when it could be transported to AOl-
land. Holland herself Is now said to be
short of tobacco. IF that somebody
who wanted tobacco SO badly in 1915
that he was willing to pay these tre-
mendous prices for it has not lost his
appetite for the weed, there seems to
be little reason to doubt that, as soon
as shipping has been restored, he will
again be willing to pay pretty good
price for it.
"a
The report of the Census Bureau, as
tO the uuantitU of tobacco in the hands
of leaf dealers and manufacturers upon
October /, which has just been made
public by the government. contains
some food for thought. Several of the
facts that it discloses are rather sur
prising even to the well-informed por-
ton Of the trade. In spite of the wide
ly held theory that the quantity Of to-
/ bacco has increased tremendously In
Tho r,nrt z-on,. ,.nrort shoy,-S th.t