The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1919-05-16
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES

What market demand there is for
Wisconsin tobacco at the present time
is almost exclusively for binder leaf to
| meet the pressing demands OF manu-
facturers who are buying on hand to
mouth order Packers are looking for
ward to increased orders as the season
progresses, as reflected in the buying
of the 1918 crop. At no time has good
binder leaf been sold for less than re-
munerative prices, while large per-
centage of the better crops for much
less than 25 ceuts. The class of to-
bacco that has taken the full force of
the slump is either of the short, grass
hopper-eaten crops that puts them into
the stemming grades, or quite an un-
usual percentage of crops that through
carelessness in stripping have too large
a portion of wet tobacco scattered
through the bundles. Had the high
case leaves been kept separate in the
bundling, such crops could have been
marketed before this for the larger
proportion would be suitable for binder
purposes. Packers who have plenty of
tobacco yet to be put through the
warehouses shy at taking on such crops
as above mentioned that entail especial
handling of high case leaf. Whatever
there is left in country hands that fills
the requirements of binder leaf will
continue to be lifted at fair prices even
if low grade types remain untouched.
With the filler tobaccos the market
conditions are somewhat different. A
big crop in 1918 in Pennsylvania and
Ohio, a good proportion of which has
not yet been marketed, added to a lib
eral amount of old leaf in packers
hands, indicates surplus of this stock
and manufacturers are confident lower
prices will prevail. What portion of
last years crop that has been sold in
these states has gone at prices equal to
the slump in this state on stemming
goods around II cents. Growers in
these states, as here, had their ideas
set on war prices but gradually came
around to accept the inevitable as fixed
by the law of supply and demand.
Eventually this tobacco will be moved,
but it can hardly be hoped at any In
creased prices under present market
conditions I The collapse of the war
seems to have put o deeper crimp into
tobacco prices than almost any other
commodity partly due to the fact that
tobacco crop when ready for sale 10
often q year and half away from the
manufacturer table ahd readjust-
ments toward normal conditions are all
the time coming. 43ta
-
The source from which we get the
potashin our commercial fertilizers is
the mines in foreign countries. We
this is the best and cheapest manner
Of obtaining this element which is of
so much Importance in all guanos.
There are many other sources from
which supply of potash could be OBJ
/
wood ashes, etc. 1t can only be OBJ
tanned from these last mentioned
sources, however, in small quantities
and at very high cost. The potash
as it comes to US is in two forms, MUIR
late of potash, or chloride of potas-
sium, containing chlorine, which is
very injurious to some plants, and sui
phate of potash, which can be used
under any crop, but is more expensive
than the muriate. Potash as a plant
food is used to build up the starch and
sugar tissues. Tests show that dry to-
bacco stems contain about one per cent
phosphoric acid, two and one-half per
cent nitrogen and seven per cent pot
ash. This clearly shows that it is es-
sential as plant food. Now we can
see from the above that there is more
potash in a plant of tobacco than there
is nitrogen and phosphoric acid COM
bined. Are you giving your tobacco
the proper amount of potash? Prac-
tically all of our soils contain more or
less potash. Some claim that the sup
ply is inexhaustible. 1t may be true
that we can never exhaust what is in
the soil, but in this case the supply
only becomes available in small guam
titles each year. Some of our soils
contain sufficient potash for growing
tobacco without applying more, but in
stances of this kind are rare. The
greater portion does not contain enough
potash. The problem is to find out
whether your land is lacking in this
element. The answer can only come
by experimenting. Plant the crop with
the usual fertilization. On a portion
give the tobacco top dressing of sui
phate of potash, notice the difference.
and thereby help to solve your fertiL
izer problems. The lack of potash will
retard the growth of the leaf, making
it small and light, while too much will
cause the plant to remain green until
frost There is a happy medium be-
tween the two in which the leaf at
tains its full growth, has body and tex
ture, and ripens uniformly at maturity.
This is the point which we wish to
reach. 1t seems to be common prac
tice, especially in some sections, for
the farmers to use tobacco fertilizer