Canadian Growers Face Real Proble
Uncertain Market Conditions
Are Cause for World Concern
Decrease of Fifty
Percent Reported
In Canadian Crop
Toronto Paper Tells of New
Crop in Canadian
Farm Program
It is hard to believe what a few
months' time can do in the way
of bringing about changes over
a wide front, especially as those
changes affect economic condi
tions in general and tobacco cul
ture in particular. Hardly before
they got started into the business
of tobacco culture, Canadian far
mers are now facing a serious
problem Only last year Mr.
Groves of a Canadian firm was
in this county looking for young
men to teach and train farmers
in the northern country how to
cultivate and cure tobacco. Be
fore that crop was marketed, war
broke out in the Mother Country,
and, according to reports reach
ing here the Canadian farmer has
a large portion or all of his crop
in his own barn. When the British
went the American market,
the action was felt in Canada, too.
This year Canadian farmers are
said to have reduced their acre
age more than 50 per cent, and
it is possible that many ef those
entering the tobacco business for
the first time will return to their
old agricultural habits.
Up until the war broke out,
Canada was making extensive
preparations for increasing to
bacco production, and a story ap
pearing in the Toronto Star Week
ly of August, last year, tells about
it in the following story:
"There's a new kind of farmer
in Ontario these days," the story
begins.
He lives in a big house in town,
wears $60 suits, goes to the office
every morning and has never
milked a cow or plowed a furrow
in his life.
He hires, not farm hands, but
resident managers and crop ex
perts. And he makes money. Not
the money needed to meet?the
instalment on the mortgage and
buy his wife a new dress and
make a down payment on a sec
ond-hand combine. He makes big
chunks of "folding money", like
vice presidents and salesmanag
ers.
He is a tobacco farmer. His
product is "brown gold".
Now there are big men in dairy
ing and fruit-growing and in mix
ed farming, and there are small
farmers?many of them ? who
grow tobacco. But never, proba
bly in all the history of Ontario
farming, have hard-headed bus
iness men, looking for an invest
ment, put so much money into
the soil as have these sponsors of
the province's newest big-time
crop?tobacco.
Not that all tobacco men go
around with broad smiles on their
faces. They grumble, too, like any
good farmer, and have troubles of
their own. They worry about the
prices and too little rain and not
enough sun and too much wind
and any hail at all and the possi
bility of frost
But it is the kind of worrying
that big business men do, not the
kind that afflicts the farmer who
wonders if he is going to break
even on the year.
CANT BE DONE
Spending several seasons
tracking Canadian fanners
the art of harvesting and ear
ing tobacco, a Martin Coun
ty young man learned a few
things himself. Possibly the
same lesson could have been
learned right here at home,
but as it was the young man
went thousands of miles to
the north to find out that cer
tain things Just can't be done.
Several years ago the young
man spent three seasons in
Canada on a tobacco farm.
The owner planted about 60
acres of tobacco, leaving no
room for food and feed crops.
He raised good tobacco each
season and sold it for an av
erage of forty cents a pound.
But by the time he bought
all his feed for his stock and
food for his family, the far
mer had nothing left.
Possibly that policy, while
not practiced to such an ex
treme by our own farmers,
is partly responsible for the
bad plight we find ourselves
in today.
77.000 Acres This Year
This year's high acreage of 77,
000 may be greatly increased in
the near future, if suitable, san
dy soil can be found suitable for
tobacco
Anyway, Ontario's 4,000 tobac
co growers, large, medium and
small, expect to reap no less than
$20,000,000 off their 77,000 acres
in the crop that is now being har
vested. Away back in the early
days of tobacco-growing in On
tario?in 1919, for example?the
growers received as high as 58
cents a pound for their crop. But
in recent years the price has been
between 22 and 30 cents a pound.
It cut IS around is cents a pound
to produce tobacco.
Essex County is the center of
Ontario's tobacco industry, but
the acreage has increased almost
every year for the past 20 years.
New areas not even considered
for -this crop a few years ago aie
now planted to tobacco, and the
belt now extends through Kent,
Norfolk, Lambton, Elgin, Mid
dlesex, Oxford, and most recent
ly, Brant County.
Takes Money
You catch on to his feeling as
soon as you look over the great
fields of broad-leaves tobacco.
There's something impersonal
about tobacco, row after row af
ter row, unbroken. There's noth
ing of the "good earth" feeling
about it, like growing potatoes or
corn, that makes w many men
content to wrestle with the dirt
year after year for a bare living.
And those kilns, gaunt and bare
and business-like, not -friendly
like a barn.
There's no smell about a tobac
co farm, either. You'd think the
whole place would reek of the
stuff But even when you crush
a leaf and snuff it, there's only a
green smell. It takes curing to
make it the "fragrant weed".
But there's no doubt about it?
there's money in tobacco. Plenty
of money to be taken out after
plenty of money has been put in.
Take the case of Cecil Elliott,
who has 100 acres of tobacco in
the Brockville area, one of the
newest districts of the ever-ex
| panding tobacco country
A $20,0*0 Profit
We have put," said Elliott,
$30,000 into this 100 acres. And
i we haven't taken a cent out of it
i yet. But this is the first year we
I have grown tobacco. This will be
our first crop. And if the rain and
the sun and the hail and the frost
I give us a break, We may gross
$50,000 on our crop."
A $50,000 return on a $30,000 in
| vestment in one year ? and in
preference in the English market
makes it possible for this coun
try to "steal" a portion of the
; huge United States export to
Britain ? 140,000,000 pounds a
! year. Canada's "bright Virginia"
tobacco is almost identical with
, the United States product, and
already England buys several
million pounds a year here prov
ing that Canadian tobacco is ac
, ceptablc to English smokers.
But," reminded Elliott, "if
things go wrong, we may be out
a sizeable portion of that $30.
?000.M So there's an element of
! chance, of speculation, about to
bacco, too.
"We are not, as a matter of fact,
interested in breaking even," one
1 tobacco man told me. "It costs a
lot of money to grow tobacco and
we must make money on it-?or
we wouldn't be in it."
Curing Described
If you could listen in to the
whole of the tobacco area these
nights, you would hear a great
symphony of tinkling alarm clocks
as curers, cat-napping beside the
kilns, are awakening to check
No father of a new-born babe
is more alert to catch the faintest
cry of his pride and joy in Ihe
still of the night than are these
curers to The music "of theiralarm
clocks,, warning that their kiln
full of tobacco needs attention.
Even heat is the important thing
here. Too much or too little may
ruin a fine batch of tobacco.
Tobacco has lent an internation
al flavor to southwestern Ontario.
In earlier days thousands of skill
ed pickers and curers from the
southern states used to come north
fui the ciup, and although Canad
ians now are able to do most of
this work, a number of southern
ers, confident that tobacco had
a bright future in this "land of
ice and snow" have settled in On
| lario, become growers themselves.
Seore have married fnnnrtian
girts, others have brought tin ii
wives north and their children
are Canadian-born.
Hundreds of* Belgian families,
too, moved into Ontario as tobac
co workers Many started grow
ing crops in shares, and eventual
ly became independent farmers.
The little town of Delhi, for ex
ample, in the heart of the tobac
co country, becomes much like a
Belgian y^^Se.on market days
and holidays. Recently an elab
orate bicycle track, said to be one
of the best in Canada, was con
structed at Delhi. Cycle races are
the favorite sport of the Bel
gians.
The farmers cure their own to
bacco in wooden kilns. Some 15
kilns are needed for 100 acres of
tobacco and they cost $550 each,
consume four tons of coal and
four cords of wood, at a tol^l cost
of $46, during the time of curing
Hundreds of men are suffering
sleepless nights in the tobacco belt
this time of the year. They are
the expert curers, many of them
southerners, who tend the kilns
by day and by night. On their care
and skill rests the fate of the crop.
In the three or four days of cur
ing, the best leaf may be spoiled,
and turn out to be worth only half
the market price.
Among the newly-created
business establishments in
Williamston is the Martin
Supply Company with Mr.
Eddie Trahey, above, as its
general manager. The firm is*
made up of well-known Mar
tin citizens and is housed in
the Perry Building on Wash
ington Street.
Tells How It Is Grown
Tobacco is grown from seed
which has the consistency of dust.
TIh h ;iir no fewer than 350,000
Seeds in a single ounce and an
ounce and a half will grow seed
lings enough to fill a greenhouse
1 (10 feet long by 22 feet wide. The
i?ppds are planted in "wood "ashes
in perforated cans. The green
houses, incidentally, are not arti
fically heated, but the tempera
tely i? mnlntninnd l.y ?tin Hl'ftI Ot
the sun.
Many more seedlings than are
needed are grown. Only the stur
dier plants are selected for the
fields.
At the age of six weeks the
seedlings are transplanted. By
the middle of August the leaves
are turning yellow, and are ready
for picking. Usually the pickers
work in gangs of six under a "boss
picker".
The leaves ripen "from the
ground up." The first picking will
take those nearest the ground,
about thrqe leaves _from?eacb
plam. A field-will have to be
picked as often as four or five
times, until the topmost "layer"
has been taken off. Only skilled
pickers are employed, since much
af the value of the tobacco is lost
if the leaves are damaged.
As the pickers pass along the
rows which are 41 inches apart,
they place the leaves in a horse
drawn "boat," a narrow canvas
container on runners. As each
boat is filled, it goes at once to
the kilns, since it is important
that the curing process begin as
soon as possible after picking.
Jslimhh-fingered gudfr then take
over. Two assistants pass leaves,
three or four at a time, to the tiers,
who, with a quick flick of the
fingers, fasten them on alternate
sides of a four-foot lath. When the
stick" of some 112 leaves is com
pleted, it is passed up to a work
er in the kiln, who places it on (
a rack. Each kiln holds 1,250 to
1,450 "sticks", reaching nearly to
the roof.
Fast Work
These skilled ?irJ?"stringers'1 I
provide the one bit of fast action
in the harvesting of tobacco, which
otherwise is quiet and unspectac
ular For months the leaves have
grown and matured. After they
have been cured, there need be
no hurry in handling them. But
in those minutes between the
Cotton-An Old
Arkansas Custom
Little R6ck, Ark.?In Arkansas
it's an offense carrying with it a
fine for a member of the 77 Coun
ty Home Demonstration Councils
to attend a meeting wearing other
than a cotton dress.
Since 1933 the home demonstra
tion club women of Arkansas
have adhered rigidly to the pol
icy of wearing cotton costumes ex
clusively to their annual meetings
and camps. Miss Connie J. Bon
slagcl, state home demonstration
agent, has advised the National
Cotton Council.
The Arkansas State Camp, held
for six years, drew from 1,000 to
1,200 women each year, and none
but cotton dresses were worn on
I these occasions. The 77 county
councils in the state hold from
| two to four meetings a year, with
t attendance running from 50 to
j 300 women, with many of the
groups assessing fines on any wo
man who appears wearing a dress
made of other fibers than cotton.
Flour made from cottonseed is
I now blended with wheat flour to
I produce a delicious new type of
bread rich in vitamins B and G,
the National Cotton Council an
nounces. Vitamin G is a proven
tive for pellagra
picking of the leaves and the be
ginning of their heat treatment,
are as perishable as fish after they
are hauled from the water.
A good stringer can loop her
hands -of- leaves- as- fast as?two
helpers can hand them from the
"boat". She stands beside a wood
en "horse," across which is plac
ed a four-foot lath. The helpers
hold the hands of three or four
leaves high on the stalk, and with
one swift movement the stringer
grasps them, ? loops o length of
string around the stalk, and lets
it fall to one side and the oth
1 eaves fairly dance into position
under the fingers of a fast string
er . Then up the "sticks" go. into
the kiln to become tobacco as we
know it.
Flue-cured Creates "Boom"
Flue-cured tobacco is by far
Ontario's?largest?crop of?the
"weed," and it is this tobacco that
is responsible for the western On
tario boom. Burley, grown for
half a century, covers fewer than
10,000 acres, compared with ov
er 60,000 acres for flue-cured. But
hurley growers are prosperous too
and stick faithfully to their choice.
Burley is darker, is used largely
for chewing tobacco and some
^upe-blendr, and does not require?
j the same elaborate curing as the
Virginia bright. Some 2,700 acres
are grown to "dark tobacco," used
for blending.
The leaves are dried at 80 de
grees, then the furnace is step
ped up to 110 degrees for the col
oring process, and the curing is
finished off at 180 degrees. This
takes three or four days, during
which the leaves lose 75 per cent
of their weight. A cured stick of
leaves weighs about a pound and
three-quarters.
No Auction Sales
The colorful tobacco auctions of
the south, with the queer babbling
jargon of the auctioneer, ore not
held in Ontario. Instead, tobacco
buyers visit the farms and make
an offer for the cured crop
After that, it goes to help make
I the seven billion cigarettes (yes
7,000,000,000) that Canadians
smoke each year.