74 CIRCULAR 249, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
buyers, or by sales negotiated after the tobacco is cured or is in the 
process of curing. 
The buyer may be an independent packer or his representative, or 
the representative of one of the larger cigar manufacturers. Although 
competitive bidding exists in the sense that various buyers inspect the 
tobacco and make offers, the competition is less apparent than is 
true in the territory where the auction-sales method prevails. The 
buyers ride over the tobacco district periodically during the growing 
season and observe the progress of individual crops as well as the 
changes in acreage and crop prospects as compared with previous 
years, and thereby keep themselves informed on the location of de- 
sirable crops. 
Contracts for the purchase of tobacco at the barn may be at a 
stipulated price ‘‘around,” that is, for all grades alike, or, as is more 
common in the cigar-leaf districts, so much per pound for the grades 
commonly referred to by various names which include (1) the grades 
suitable for cigar-manufacturing purposes, and (2) grades known as 
stemming grades and suitable primarily for the manufacture of scrap 
chewing tobacco. Such contracts ordinarily contain stipulations 
by which deductions from the agreed price may be made for excessive 
quantities of damaged leaf present when delivery is made." 
Not all the tobacco produced in the cigar-leaf districts is disposed of 
by simple sales contracts such as just referred to. Some of it, es- 
pecially in the shade tobacco districts, is placed in the hands of dealers 
or packers by a contract under the terms of which the dealer acquires 
a half interest in the crop upon payment of a stipulated price per pound. 
The dealer then sorts, sweats, and packs the tobacco in bales or cases, 
and sells it to the best advantage. The costs of these operations are 
deducted from the gross returns, the difference being divided equally 
between the grower and the dealer. 
A third procedure is occasionally followed by growers who believe 
they have a superior crop and that the market will improve. This is 
to have an experienced packer sort, sweat, and pack the tobacco for a 
see fee. The tobacco is then stored by the grower for future 
sale. 
CooPERATIVE MARKETING 
The history and character of cooperative marketing presents a 
subject too broad for more than a brief reference here.” 
Over a long’ period of years attempts have been made by tobacco 
growers to improve, by cooperative methods, the conditions under 
1 he practice of “‘riding’’ the territory during the growing season is not confined to the cigar-tobacco 
districts, but is almost universal wherever tobacco is grown on a commercial scale. The circuit riders and 
buyers of the large manufacturing establishments, heads and buying staff of leaf-tobacco establishments, and 
small independent packers or dealers, all go to the fields and form their own judgment of the probable size 
and quality of the crop. On the basis of opinions thus formed, coupled with the trends and character of 
domestic consumer demand for manufactured tobacco products, stocks of leaf tobacco already in the hands 
of dealers and manufacturers, and the state of foreign demand for leaf tobacco are based the purchasing plans 
and price scales that will govern the returns to growers when their product is finally offered for sale. 
14 Country buying is not restricted to cigar-tobacco districts. In some districts that produce the so- 
called manufacturing and export types (types used in the making of smoking, chewing, and snuff tobacco 
both at home and abroad) farm or barn-door buying is important. This is notably true in the dark-fired 
districts of Kentucky and Tennessee. Here the purchases are made mainly by large concerns seeking to 
obtain the choicest crops at advantageous prices. To some extent, in these districts and in portions of the 
Burley district, purchases of this character are made by speculators who resell the tobacco over the floors of 
loose-leaf warehouses. 
15 For a more complete discussion of the principles of cooperative marketing, see the following references: 
(2, 8, 4, 15, 17, 18, 24, and 25). See also COLLINS, WILLIAM, AND BAKKEN, HENRY H., THE COOPERATIVE 
TOBACCO MARKETING SITUATION IN WISCONSIN. U. S. Farm Credit Admin., Spec. Rpt. No. 19. 
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