The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1921-04-01
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES

!
ing conditions on the right kind of soil,
produce a leaf that in size and quality,
| weight, burn and color appeals to the
discerning buyer and manufacturer, can
not be oyerestimated. Seed will run
out, as it were, and revert to an inferior
type, and it needs the brains and skill
of man to be kept up in the point of
standard On this topic John B. Stew
art, president of the New England To-
bacco Growers association, says in an
interview printed in the Leaf March l6
his remarks have reference to Con-
necticut Havana seed now used in the
Cnnecticut Valley:
IF the small grower is to benefit the
type of Havana seed must be improved.
But of late years Havana seed has suf-
fered gradual deterioration, caused
by an inadequate amount of expert
mental work on the part of the Con-
necticut Agricultural station in the re-
newal OF seed. What is most needed
at this time and where the proposed
new extension of the station would be
of great benefit, would be in starting
new work on the Havana seed type in
the same manner as when the seed was
introduced in the early eighties. Then
the method was to get pure strains of
Cuba tobacco and acclimate it. This
problem has already been worked out
once and it is nothing of an expert
mental nature. 1t is the judgment of
Mr. Stewart that if the tobacco grower
does not get this needed assistance
from the state, and if the type of Ha-
vana seed continues to deteriorate the
time is not far distant when the pres
tige which Connecticut has enjoyed will
be entirely lost J"
| The improved No. 38 developed by
the U. w. Experiment Station has
proven to the farmers and handlers of
tobacco in the state the wisdom Of ex-
perimental work with the view of seed
improvement. The successful develop
ment of a root rot resistant strain of
seed for tobacco sick" soil is another
contribution of the experimental work
to the safety and progress of tobacco
culture. This last seed may by contin-
ued breeding under intelligent direction
develop qualities of leaf, especially as
to texture and burn, that will make it
hold its own with the approved Com
stock and No. ,38. The scientific as
Isistance or the Experiment Station of
the u. w. to the solution of the seed
problem is welcomed, not only by Wis
consin growers, but by the tobacco In
dustry of the nation, and every grower
should keep close watch of seed devel-
opment because it may mean differ
ence in the returns upon his invest
| ment and labor of no insignificant size.
Again the matter of producing a. crop
of good binders in Wisconsin during the
| 1921 season should be held before the
growers as the aim above all others.
| The present situation does not call for
| an effort to produce large amount of
| Indifferent leaf. To do this will only
| tend to retard the movement of, the
| large holdings of 1920 stemming grades.
A good sized acreage of leafy binders
| during the coming season will help to
| overcome the present shortage of this
| type of leaf. and minimum of short
goods will aid in the clearing of the
boards of the present glut in the mar
ket The southern Wisconsin acreage
of suitable soil can produce binder of
high quality, just as leafy as the best
1 northern type, and with body to it
| that makes it good risk in the sweat
| ing process. From all reports the
southern grower is on the alert, and is
going to do his utmost, propitious grow
| ing conditions permitting, to produce a
tobacco crop of as high quality as his
| to turn out, in spite of the partial re-
verses that the section suffered during
! the 1920 season.
| Edouard Nyssens of Antwerp, Bel
| gium, has written letter to Western
Tobacco Journal about tobacco prices.
It is a well put up discussion of present
conditions, and the remedy for the bad
part of these. In speaking of the rem
edies he mentions two: Lower prices of
manufactured tobacco and intelligent
| advertising. On the first he says:
Whenever an article is dear, con-
| sumption in some way or other always
| decreases. This is an unavoidable rule,
and if we look at the consumption of
/! tobacco in the different countries of
! the world we will invariably find that
| where the consumption is large the
duties are low and consequently the ar
| ticle is cheap. In France. Italy and the
other countries where there is Reggie,
the consumption per head is about two
pounds yearly; it's about the same in
England; in Germany it was before the
war something like to pounds; in
the States it is about to 6, and in Bel
gium and Holland where, before the
war there was practically no duties, it
amounted to some to z pounds.
| He says that high duties in the Euro
pean countries have been accompanied
with efforts to encourage growing of
tobacco in these countries. France,