Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1921-03-03
GROWING OF TOBACCO
I'm WISCONSIN HAS
BECOME LARGE ITEM


cal LoriIlard tobacco plant, sends the
News the following clipping from a
newspaper, the item bearing on the
industry:
The tobacco culture in Wisconsin
has stood the test for more than half
a century. The soil which Is suitable
for it has not become exhausted, the
demand for Wisconsin binder leaf has
not decreased, and the return to the
growers, while variable In the amount
Of net profit from year to year, has
been satisfactory enough to keep the
old grower constantly in line with a
new crop to sell every season, and
new men have come into the indus
try year after year, increasing the
acreage until during the past year
over $4,000 acres Of the plant were
cultivated in the state. The last years
have brought exceptionally high prices,
and though the cost of growing tobacco
has increased vastly, it has not in
creased perceptibly more proportionate
ly than that Of growing other staple
economic assets to the sections Of the
state where soil and climate are suit
able, and been the means of put
ting many man who started with
little, where he could accumulate
enough to become substantial owner
of valuable land and other property.
It has furnished a large amount Of
labor to men and women in all the
towns and villages where tobacco has
been handled, and the taxes assessed
upon the business of the industry in
these towns have yielded large reve-
nue. for public improvement. The far
mers who have followed tobacco cul-
ture as a branch of their agricultural
development have gradually become
proficient in it's culture, and are be-
coming more so every year as their
experience grows, and as the study of
soil, fertilizers, seed selection and
the prevention of plant disease, car
ried on at the state experiment sta
ton, assist them in intelligent care of
soil and the plant from the seed bed
till it hangs in the shed. The high
prices paid during the last years have
tempted many to grow tobacco on
soils not we'll adapted for it: others
have expanded the acreage beyond
Their ability to keep up it's proper
fertility These have suffered CORES
bonding reverses, especially in seasons
like last summer when protracted
droughts prevailed. Tobacco raising
should not be gone into to any con-
siderable extent, except where the
quality Of the soil and ability to fur
nish proper fertilizers are present,
otherwise disappointments are likely
to follow. And there is amply acreage
both in the southern and northern
areas of the state where conditions
are right for successful tobacco cul-
ture. Here the farmers can go into it,
and reap fair returns for their labors
Really intensive tOba| co farming
has not been done in this state as yet:
the best results in size and quality of
leaf have not been reached, except
where conditions naturally have favor
ed the production of such crop, and
then accident rather than design
brought the desired harvest. Barring
hail storms, grasshoppers, frosts and
unusually heavy winds the grower
should gradually be able to produce
the kind Of leaf he sets out to plant,
and be relatively certain of the re-
suits. The Wisconsin binder fills
place in the manufacture of cigars that
other leaf has not been able to fill,
and the effort on the part of the
growers should be to produce a leaf
that the manufacturer must have to
give him the cigar that the discerning
smoker wants. AS it is with the grow
er in Wisconsin, thus it is with the
labor who handles the crop in the
warehouses; there is in the tobacco
growing sections now a stock of ex-
perienced. men and women who are
proficient in the work, and they can be
depended upon to turn out a product
that is serviceable for the cigar manu-
facturer. These facts should not be
forgotten, though discourse cement has
sprung up because a certain portion Of
the 1920 crop has not as yet found a
market Tobacco culture has made
good in Wisconsin; it has come, and
come to stay. 1t may have to take it's
reverses now and then, but the intelli-
gent and progressive grower and hand
Ter Of tobacco leaf will find a way
around these difficulties and make the
tobacco crop, as a binder proposition
as safe and as dependable as any other
crop suited to the climate and soil of
the state