The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1920-03-12
TOBACCO men
N'BLACk PATCH
up AGAINST IT.
FOREIGN EXCHANGE DEMoRALlz.
Es MARKET, AND GROWERS UN.
ABLE TO SELL CHOPS.
MUCH Of WEED IS YET uNsolD
Efforts Of Dealers to Secure Relief
Have Been Unavailins, and Farmers
Undecided Whether Of Not to Grow
Another Crop This Year.

Despite reassuring reports, issued
from points in the 'Black Patch the
dark tobacco district of Tennessee
and Kentucky, to the effect that the
tobacco market has not been seriously
effected by the conditions OF foreign
exchange, there is still considerable
uneasiness manifested by tobacco
growers of that section. Where there
Is so much smoke, there Is sure to be
some fire." Where there Is so much
uneasiness, either expressed or i'm
piled in news stories sent from Clarks.
Vile, the worlds leading dark fired
tobacco market, Springfield, Hopkins
vile and Paducah, KY, there is sure
to be some foundation for the reports
that the market has been effected.
Some tobacco growers claim that
they are unable to sell their crops at
anything like fair prices. These farm
ers are holding for more money. In
an effort to distract attention from
real conditions, others are advocating
change in the sales system, declar-
ing that loose floor" and chute"
sales are not fair to the farmer. Farm
ers say these methods simply put the
ffc nft hosr In hny In,
table" where they are auctioned off
to the highest bidder for what can
be obtained for them. In some sec.
tons of the Black Patch, farmers have
formed pools" and declared their in.
tention OF holding tobacco until the
buyers of tobacco agree to send rid.
er buyers to their barns, where the
crop will be sold.
Up until few years ago this was
the only manner in which tobacco was
sold. The buyer, having obtained an
order from his company, the Italian
Reggie, or the French government, or
some firm in Germany, or in the Scan
dinavian countries. for so many mil
lion pounds of tobacco of a certain
type, The price was fixed in the con-
tract, and the buyer who had the order
called in his riders" other buyers,
who secured the country on hores-
hopE 0ntn0 a IN in,
search Of the types of tobacco wanted.
IL the weed suited his purpose, the
crop was purchased for so much
around" and the trade closed. 1t has
not been great many years since the
price around was not much more than
six dollars per hundred pounds. Lugs
and low leaf sold down as low as $1.50
and 81. At this price the farmer lost
money, and then came the Dark Dis
trict Tobacco Planters Association,
and the troubulous days of the night
riders, when those messengers of
death rode every road in the dark to-
bacco. district, sat on every jury, pray
ed in every church, and at night scrap
ed the plant beds Of his neighbor who
was not a member of the association.
Blood was spilled, armed troops pa.
trofed by night many of the towns in
the district, more blood was spilled,
and towns burned by the midnight ma
RAIDERS. But prices went up. wheth-
err or, not it was due to the association
is not known. The association went
out of business, and just before the
world war tobacco was bringing some
$40 or $12 around and farmers felt
that they were securing splendid
prices and making money.
And then came the great demand
Orders poured in, the only question
was "can we fill them" Rider buy
ers secured the country. The loose
floors were crowded with bidders. To- |
bacco prices went SCIENTIFICALLY |
the sky was the limit. The weed |
brought unheard of prices. Never be-
FOREHEAD it brought such fabulous sums.
Not infrequently did buyers pay from
$40 to $50 per hundred, and the pa
pers were filled with stories telling
how Jim Smith and Bud Jones had
paid off the mortgage. bought regis
cred cattle and automobiles, built a
lew barn and painted the house white,
md trimmed it with green. Money,
money, money. The Black Patch was
'olling in wealth. Everybody had
money, lots of it, and everybody spent
money. Wen live, while we do live"
vas the motto. They made purchases
asst fall contemplating the sale of
heir crops this season at the prices
which prevailed the season just pre-
'ious, or even in excess of those
lrices.
But now, with foreign exchange in
precarious state, tobacco dealers
must necessarily go slow. Practical
y all the tobacco grown in the Black
latch is for export sale, and with
he present exchange conditions 1t is