ANNUAL REPORT—AGRICULTURE. 
27 
The war, however, put a check upon the southern produc¬ 
tion, and so far advanced prices that northern cultivators were 
stimulated to extraordinary efforts; so that the product of this 
section has been multiplied many hundred fold. 
The variety chiefly grown at the north is the Connecticut 
Seedleaf, which has a large tough leaf well suited to cigar mak¬ 
ing but unfit for chewing. The increase of production in Wis¬ 
consin since 1850, is shown below. 
Crop of 
1850.. . 
1860.. . 
1870... 
Lbs. 
1,268 
87,340 
960,213 
This increase of nearly one thousand per cent., since 1860, is 
so notable a fact that we have instituted more particular en¬ 
quiries as to the localities where this growth of tobacco culture 
has been the most marked. So far as we have been able to 
learn, the larger proportion of the annual crop of the state is 
at present grown in Rock, Dane and Walworth counties ; the 
largest buisness being done in the first named county, whose 
success is indicated by the following statement in the Milwau¬ 
kee Sentinel : 
“ Last year the farmers of Rock county who reside in tlie vicinity of the 
village of Edgerton, raised and sold more than $2|)0,000 worth of tobaoco, 
and this summer they have gone into its cultivation much more extensively 
than ever before. * * * * The average yield per acre is about 1,300 
pounds; but the best fields produced 1,800 pounds, and netted the produc¬ 
ers from $100 to $250 per acre. * * * * It is estimated that the crop 
this year (1871) which will be marketed in Edgerton will be worth from 
$300,000 to $400,000. In other sections of the state, we hear of many far¬ 
mers who are engaged in its cultivation, but to what extent we are unable 
to say. In regard to the quality of the Wisconsin weed, we may state that 
at the fair held at Cincinnati last season, some specimens sent from Rock 
county were considered superior to any Kentucky grown article on exhibi¬ 
tion.” 
Tobacco is so hard a crop on the soil, and we feel so little 
inclination, on general principles, to encourage its cultivation 
that we may have done less than justice to its profitableness as 
a crop in Wisconsin. 
