The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1921-09-30
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES.


the different tobacco growing counties
are coming in rather slowly, due to the
tardy reports of the assessors to the
county clerks. This week we can re-
port for Vernon, Columbia and Trem-
pealeau counties. The Vernon county
growers took care of STAB acres during
the past season The town OF Jeffer-
son heads the list with 988 acres, next
in order among the heavy towns are
! Viroqua 867, Franklin 808, 'Christiana
!, 782, Sterling 625, Clinton GOT, Webster
$50, Coon 489, Kickapoo AL. All other
I, towns raised less than 800 acres. If
, the city of Viroqua is counted with the
township of the same name the COM
bined acreage for Viroqua is 992. The
| total reported acreage in Columbia
| county is 1921 acres. Six townships
had not reported at the time these fig
| ures were obtained. But they are
towns in which a rather small acreage
is grown in normal years. The town
of Leeds tops the list with 723 acres,
| next is Hampden with $50, Lowville
with 401, Otsage $50, and Arlington
284. Lodi grew 104, all other towns
raised less than SO acres each. Eigh-
| teen towns raised some tobacco. Trem-
pealeau county reports total of 1920
| acres this year. Last year Columbia
county reported 2516 acres; if the towns
not reported in this county raised a
| possible 800 acres this year, the county
is about 400 acres short of last years
acreage Jefferson county reported
500 acres last year. There may be a
| falling off there Crawford raised 2279
acres in 1920, and Barron 1863. These
sections have not been heard from, but
they are quite certain to be up to last
| years acreage.
| While the reconstruction and read
iustment of affairs are still far from
completed, evidence is being produced
| in all fields which tend to show that
the adjustment is on the way. The
sudden defiation of farm produce, and
| the reluctance of dehation on the part
of manufactured goods have admins
tered shock to business that it has
not recovered from, and the recovery
is exceedingly slow. Normally is not
here, and will not be here until the
purchasing power of the producers in
creases in ratio with the reduction of
the material that they are consumers
of. One Of the hopeful signs is pre-
sented by P. V. Hoyle in the Tobacco
Journal when he comments as follows: ::
The political and economic complica-
tions that beset the world at the pres
ent time are slowly giving way to the
linexorable progress of sanity and rea-
son, and this progress is being reflected
in the better stabilization of values.
While the selling and buying of mer-
chandise is always done for the pur-
pose of profit, and altruism finds very
little play in business, it is fact that
the history OF trade is the history of
civilization, and the course of prices
rightly interpreted, afford a better
basis for the apprisal OF a nation g
state of being than can be obtained in
any other way. At one end of the
scale is Russia, whose political anarchy
| is indicated by the absence of anything
like stabilized prices, and whose eco
nomic condition approximates famine.
At the other end is the United States,
with state of affairs that while still
out of joint in comparison with pre-war
times, is still nearer normal than any
other country in the world and with a
government that is functioning by or
lderly process.
| AS applying to domestic business in
the tobacco industry, the u S. Tobacco
Journal last week discusses the situa-
ton editorily, and we present the con-
clusions which the editor arrives at in
the following appeal to help make
things move: There need be no doubt
in the minds of the tobacco trade that
their industry is one of those which, as
Babson's report says, 'have sufficient
ly readjusted their prices and produc-
| tion costs to make selling effort effec-
tive. Not only are the prices of all
well-known and standard brands of ci-
gars and cigarettes now fully read
justed for the fall and holiday season,
but there is every promise of a demand
that will cope with the capacity of the
various factories for the remainder of
the present year. If you combine re-
adjusted price with prospective in
creased demand, you will have situa-
tion to spur the weakest and most list
less merchant to action in defense of
his holiday hopes. For if he cannot
show satisfactory profit on the COM
ing four months, he will not show
any profit on the year. In the basic
commodities that constitute the index
Figures employed by economists to es-
innate the future, we have seen how
Ineither the determination of the public
to save nor the desire of manufacturers
and merchants to reduce prices has so