The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1920-09-10
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES


with rush 1t selected the best tobac-
co, and then died down again to price
which did not encourage the grower in
setting large crop this year. AS a
result the crop of Dutch will be very
short this year, perhaps about GO per
cent as compared with last year. The
Gebhardt is the largest crop this year.
In quality the thinner is showing up
excellent, but the acreage is short.
Weather conditions have improved the
stand lately. Quite movement is on
among farmers to quit the growing of
tobacco; they feel that other crops will
yield just as much profit, considering
the amount of labor involved in the
growing of it.
The coming of the Is cent standard
cigar to take the place of the old 10
cent cigar is about certain. At that
the increase in the price of cigars is
moderate compared to the increase in
the price of most of the things we need
in these days.
The. 1920 tobacco crop is estimated at
], 544, 489, 900 pounds by the crop re-
porting service of the department of
agriculture, which is 84.1 per cent nor
NAL. This is August estimate.
***
The following from the Nance Rec
ord is of interest, not only because it
tells how to judge cigar, but also be-
cause it emphasizes the Importance of
proper handling of the leaf that will
produce good, mild or strong, or rank
cigar: A light-colored wrapper does
not necessarily mean a mild cigar, nor
does a dark-hued wrapper necessarily
enclose a strong cigar. The secret of
strength or mildness lies entirely in the
quality and degree of ripeness of the
tobacco which goes into the filler. A
cigar filled with heavy tobacco, especi-
ally if it is thick cigar, is just as apt
to produce a heavy, thick, strong smoke
whether its wrapper happens to be
light or dark. There is distinction
between the terms heavy and strong as
applied to cigars. There are heavy CT
gars that are good cigars because they
have been properly and skillfully blend
ed in the making. And there are mild
cigars that are good cigars even
though dark in color for the same rea-
son. Really strong" tobacco is that
which has been improperly cured, or
which has been produced under such
conditions Of climate and soil that the
resulting leaf Is coarse and crude. Such
product would make a strong and
rank cigar under any conditions. The
cultivation and raising of the tobacco
leaf is science in itself, requiring
very definite conditions as to climate,
soil, curing and seasoning, and it some
times takes a very little thing to spuil
the quality of the tobacco, so that no
method of curing or blending can make
of it good leaf. But on the other
hand, it IS very easy to make a poor
leaf out of a good leaf by improper
curing or handling or sorting.
The Burley tobacco growers of Indi-
ana, Ohio, West Virginia and Ken
lucky who met at Lexington during the
middle of last month to consider wheth-
er they should raise tobacco in 1921 or
not, decided by plurality of five votes
to grow tobacco next season. One hun
dred and seventy-six delegates, repre-
senting $4,000 growers, decided to or
ganize the Burley Growers association.
***
The soundness Of the position taken
by the man whose advice we print in
the following paragraph should compel
attention. 1t is taken from an inter-
view printed in the U. S. Tob. Journal:
The wise policy for the time is one
of ready adoption and cooperation all
around. Changes are impending and it
is no time for any group to take an
arbitrary position and say that it will
have things its own way. The problem
lis to lower the whole level upon which
the exchange of industry is being made
without disrupting the organization and
interrupting production. If, as seems
probable, the farmers must accept
gradual reduction in the prices of their
products, as Europe becomes more
self-sufficient, some impairment of their
purchasing power will result, and they
will buy less of the products of other
industries unless these are correspond
ingly cheaper. 1t will be useless for
the producers in other industries to in
sist that they shall have the same
money income if the great agricultural
population has less. There is natural
equilibrium and reciprocity among the
industries which is bound to he main
tanned because it is fixed in the very
constitution of things. If the readjust-
ments are not made reasonably and
harmoniously they will be made any
way by the force of economic law.
Says the Vernon County Censor: The
1920 crop, while trifie larger in acre
age than last year, is not to be COM
pared to the 1919 yield in quality Much
of the early tobacco is light, and
large part of the late weed is short
Here and there are few prime crops,
of course. 1t looks as if this years
4 4 r