The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1919-07-18
NOTE Book SKETCHES

It is very great pity that the gov
ernment does not give out the flgures
compiled bp it's statistical departments
more promptly If the tobacco trace
could know shortly after the end of
April that the cigar factories were fall
ing behind in production, or that the
imports wer4 decreasing, such inform
alton might have definite value to
the manufacturer or the leaf tobacco
merchant in choosing his future course
of action. But under the present sys-
TEN. the figures for April are given out
about the first of July, and, of course,
any value they have is simply historic
and academic This is true of the fig
ures given out by both the Internal
Revenue Department and the Bureau
of Commerce.
~
For instance, the figures showing the
imports and exports of tobacco and It's
manufactured products for the month
of April which have just come to hand,
contain some very interesting facts.
They disclose the fact that in April the
Importation of Mexican tobacco, which
wass heavy year ago, has dwlndled
away to practically nothing, and that
the importation of Santo Domingo to-
baccO continues very heavy 1t shows
also that within the. ten months ending
with April our importations of wrapper
material from the Dutch East Indies
were remarkably high as compared
with the same period of last year.
-
Great Britain continues to be our
best customer, taking in the ten months
period ending with last April 227 mil
lion pounds of tobacco, or about one
half of our entire exports. In the same
period year earlier the United King
dom took only As million pounds.
France stands second with Sc million
pounds and Italy third with 20 million
pounds, in each case big increase be-
ing shown over the preceding year.
Australia is fourth with Is million
pounds, against about million for the
preceding year. In ali of these in
stances the relative money value seems
to correspond very closely with the
quantity. The Argentine Republic has
doubled her imports of our tobacco in
the past year. Our shipments to the
Netherlands, of little over million
pounds in the ten months period, are
four times as large as in the preceding
year, but are only about one-tenth of
Hollands importations for the same
period of 1917.
The trade, is about to witness u very
interesting experiment. That is, the
operations of the Tobacco Growers as
sociations in Connecticut and Wiscon-
sin to market their tobacco without the
aid of the packer. In both states the
organizations contain many of the most
substantial tobacco growers of their re-
spective communities, and the tobacco
that was raised and packed by them
includes many crops that any packer in
the business would be glad to own.
There have been previous experiments
of this sort, and they have almost uni
versally resulted in failure. That is
not to say, however, that the present
experiment will fail. Even if the
present associations find their venture
very profitable, it would not mean that
the packer, as an institution, has been
done away with 1t is not every farm
aer that will be able to hold his tobacco
until it is ready for the manufacturer.
But the experiment, if successful, will
demonstrate that the farmers, as
whole, need not accept price that
does not remunerate them for their toll
and investment. They will always
have the option of choosing the method
that brings them the most satisfactory
returns.
The tabulation of the cigar produc-
tion of this country for the first four
months of this year does not. on the
face of it, disclose very satisfactory
state of affairs. The production of ci-
gars in the United States, from Janu
ary to April, inclusive of both months,
showed falling off, in comparison
with the same months of last year, of
267, 735, 663 cigars. Should this rate of
decrease be continued for the remand
er of the year, there will be a decrease
of more than three-Quarters of bill
lion cigars for 1919. 1t is unlikely,
however, that this will happen. The
total number of cigars manufactured
in these four months was 2, 054, 492, 274.
In the same period last year there were
produced 1892, 227, 937 cigars. An an
alysis of these figures, taken by classes,
is instructive and confirms what has
previously been pointed out. The de-
| crease is entirely among cigars that
retail for less than eight cents. The
production of the costlier grades of ci
gars shows notable expansion.
-
The trade between the United States
and the non-contiguous territories of
| this country shows some ups and
downs. Alaska, for instance, in the
ten months ending with April, took 13
million cigarettes, 81 million cigars, 81
thousand pounds of plug, and TT thou
sand pounds of smoking tobacco, of a
total value of $543, 900, which is about
| SIPS, 900 less than the value of her to-
| bacco imports for the same period of
1918.
July ushered in very disagreeable
experience, for the cigar industry of
| the United States. In New York and
| other cigar manufacturing centres.