Weager, Joel - 1881

The Tobacco Boom
What The Weed Is Selling For And Why So Early.

A tobacco boom has burst forth throughout our entire county.  The country is overrun by buyers and the prices paid are such as to make the overprudent <sic> tobacco dealer’s head swim.  The failure of the tobacco crop in other parts of this State as well as in other States is the main cause of bringing buyers to the front at so early a season.

New York buyers have arrived in Lancaster in large numbers and have instructed their local agents to proceed to business.  Our buyers here among us are on the alert as well.  Wm. Smith, Philip Scheyer and Fry Bros. have also purchased considerable quantities.

There is a good deal of risk, both to the buyer and the seller, in bargaining for tobacco in the field or on the poles, and unless contracts are very carefully drawn, and very faithfully fulfilled, there is apt to be bad blood stirred up between the parties, and not unfrequently law suits.

Farmers of the weed are tickled to death at the prices which are being paid.  Mr. Samuel Foltz, of Warwick, sold his crop for 25 cents round.  It is nothing unusual to hear of sales at 25 cents through, and in several instances even larger sums have been paid.

Mr. Shultz, living near Washington borough, sold his crop at 30 cents through, and as it is a very heavy one and will yield at least 2,000 pounds to the acre, he will get at the rate of at least $600 per acre for it.

Three-fourths of the really extra lots in the county have already been bought.  A dozen of the Lancaster city dealers have so far secured about 5,000 cases between them, which may be regarded as very choice.  It is said that no finer, cleaner tobacco was ever grown in the county.  There is no let up in the demand, but the hunters are as eager and anxious now as they have been at any time since the “season” opened so auspiciously.

The firm of Joseph Mayer’s Sons last week purchased six hundred cases of this year’s tobacco, in the Earls.  They paid from twenty to thirty cents for wrappers, and for some lots purchased they paid from sixteen to eighteen cents round.

Solomon Seamer, of West Hempfield, on Saturday, sold his crop of two acres at 25 cents round.  Joel Weager, of West Earl, sold his entire crop for 25 cents through, and a neighbor for 27, 20, 10 and 3 cents.

The New Era of Lancaster, in speaking about growers selling their crops now, suggests that growers demand an advance of a specified sum from unknown purchasers.  There can be no doubt about the value of this suggestion, especially at the present time, when an unprecedented amount of tobacco is bought while still in the field or in the curing sheds.  The country is overrun with buyers at the present time.

Large prices, under the excitement of the hour, are freely offered and accepted for choice lots, and only the ordinary agreement is entered into between the sellers and buyers.  Now, in all seasons there are a few scalawags who go up and down the county, buying tobacco and making contracts, which are afterwards repudiated; in fact, these men merely speculate upon the varying changes of the market; if the latter proves favorable they stick to their bargains, and when unfavorable they repudiate them.

Of course, there are but a few of these characters, but they are sufficient in number to occasion a good deal of loss to our tobacco farmers, and we have had to allude to some of their doings every season.
~ The Lititz Record, 02-Sept-1881, Page 3, Column 3