364 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
TOBACCO IN DANE AND ROCK COUNTIES. 
Dr. J % W. Hoyt, Secretary Wisconsin State Agricultural Society: 
Dear Sir —Few of the inhabitants of onr state are aware of the extent 
tolwhich tobacco is raised in this section, or of the mode of cultivation. 
Being tobacco growers, and believing that this crop is destined to bear an 
important part in the industry of our state, and in the development of its 
resources, we the more readily comply with your request to give a few of 
the leading facts pertaining to the cultivation of this important crop. 
Mr. Ralph Pomeroy and brother are undoubtedly the pioneers in the 
raising of tobacco in this state. Their experience in this business, first, at 
Suffield, Connecticut, and later, at Dayton, Ohio, gave them guaranty of 
success. In 1853, they raised a crop of nine acres on Syene Prairie, near 
Madison. The following year they transferred their operations to this place. 
Those of us who were their neighbors watched their experiments—as we 
then regarded them—doubtfully, but being practically convinced of their 
success we soon fell into the ranks as producers. Now the amount raised in 
this section exceeds four thousand cases of three hundred and sixty pounds 
each, nearly a million and a half pounds, worth, at last season’s prices, 
over $200,000 to the growers. The above figures would indicate between ten 
and eleven hundred acres devoted to this crop. The average price will 
probably be about fourteen cents a pound. 
This demonstrates clearly that the business is no longer an experiment; 
the early growers have fully proved its practicability, its quality and value 
as a market product. Many suppose that the Connecticut valley produces 
the best seed leaf tobacco in the United States. This is the fact in the 
same sense that Orange county butter is better than the same grade in 
other counties. Many eat the savory article, bought at a fancy price, not 
knowing that it is the product of some Pennsylvania, or Ohio dairy, instead 
of those in Orange county; so too, many a man may smoke his Connecticut 
cigar, warranted pure, in blissful ignorance that its splendid wrapper, and 
perhaps the whole of it, was raised in Dane or Rock counties. 
No man need expect to engage profitably in the production of tobacco, 
without first making up his mind to do some work, and at the time too when 
the crop requires it. If he neglects the work, the quality depreciates, and 
instead of raising as good as we can in Wisconsin, he may raise as poor as 
they do in Connecticut. 
The time of sowing seed in beds, is as early in spring as the ground will 
work freely; then the ground should be thoroughly prepared, and the seed 
be sown broadcast upon the surface, and rolled, not raked, in. These beds 
should always be kept free from weeds, cost what time and labor it may. 
Should the weather be dry, the beds must be watered, until the roots of the 
young plants penetrate the moist earth below. Most of the growers sow an 
