The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1922-01-20
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES
WHERE QUALITY BEGINS.

co is concerned. 1t is pretty safe
proposition that poor seed can not pro-
duce good tobacco; that is, seed from
tobacco plants which produced leaf of
inferior quality under favorable soil,
growing and weather conditions. Start
ing out with seed from an inferior quail
ity strain of tobacco is like trying to
raise thoroughbred animal from scrub
stock.
A large leaf is desirable, but it must
have other attributes to possess ''qual-
Iity' for cigar purposes. A thin leaf Is
much to be preferred. but tninness
alone is not enough to make it ''qual-
ity" binders. Thinness and size com
bined are not sufficient to appeal to the
discriminating manufacturer whc is
putting out quality cigar. There
must be good and free burn, certain
elasticity and texture to it, and its
color and aroma, or freedom from not
desirable aroma, must enter as an inn
portant consideration. All these, and
many other attributes, difficult to de-
scribe, should be combined in the leaf
which we call quality" leaf, or in
Wisconsin quality binder. 1t must
be snowy, full of life, and sing like the
hum in the drumskin when spread out
under the pull of the fingers.
This type of leaf can not be raised
from bastard seed, nor from any seed
except that produced by motherstock
which has had quality bred into it by
long and careful selection.
While it is perfectly possible to grow
poor tobacco also when using the best
quality seed, the chance of growing
quality tobacco begins with the
right kind of seed. A thoroughbred
cow can not do her best on wheat straw
and ice water; neither can thorough
bred tobacco seed produce its best
where soil and handling operate against
lit. The quality seed will respond to
culture; that is the beauty of it, just
as the COW does, while other types of
seed will not, except in size and weight.
In a campaign to develop quality in,
the Wisconsin, cigar leaf a number of
difficulties are scertain to present them
selves. But the difficulties should be
no greater to master than those en-
countered in any campaign to produce
quality, whether it be the production of
seed, or in animals, flowers and trees.
1t is the intelligence to see the right
way, and the will to. tackle the thing
that must be developed first. If the
growers of cigar leaf in Wisconsin be-
come imbued with the idea Of produc-
ing quality in the tobacco field, they
will find the way, and they will find
that it pays, just as they found it to
pay in other lines of their agricultural
experiences The Comstock Spanish
and the No. 38 may not be the last
word in excellence. At anyrate these
seeds may be capable of several de-
grees greater excellence in their pres
ent best qualities. Experiment and
study, the gathering of data upon the
influence of SOIL climate, fertilization,
! cultivation, suckerin., topping, curing
read from the character of the leaf
produced under the varied conditions
attending the growing of the plant
will take time, but it will teach it's
lesson to the intelligent, observing and
discriminating student
The state marketing department in
| its effort of effecting Standardization
of leaf may here render an important
service to the growers in arriving at
safe and economic ways of selecting the
proper seed to produce quality. If our
state can produce type of binder on
par with its butter and cheese, it will
demand the same kind of attention If
this is done-and self interest, if no
higher motive, should make it both de-
lsirable and possible-rece practices
among some manufacturers to substi-
tute other leaf for Wisconsin for bind
er purposes would tend to abate. IF
the Wisconsin leaf could be made to
represent type which the large man
ufacturers of quality cigars found that
they could not do without in order to
produce the ideal cigar brands, there
would be no need of worry among
growers and packers of that sort of
leaf as to the demand for II
Spanish Comstock, or No. 38 of pure
strain will vary in tninness on different
types of soil, though of equal merit
otherwise. Seed growers may by
experiment and selection be able to
overcome this defect by breeding these
types for thinness American ingenu-
ity and perseverance always found
way, and the Wisconsin tobacco grow
ers will solve the problem by and by.
There are few lots of assorted to-
bacco IN cases held by farmers in the
southern section Thev are not anxious