Tobacco farming has a long history in Wisconsin

"The shiftless, lazy, careless farmer need not expect to be successful for he will make a miserable failure if he tried," the speaker said. "It needs brains; it needs untiring energy and above all it needs men who can adapt themselves to circumstances and learn and profit by experience."
These words were part of a lengthy report of the Wisconsin Agricultural Society, "The Ins and Outs of Tobacco Culture," presented by F.W. Coon to the State Agricultural convention held in February 1885 in Madison.
At that time, Wisconsin was a leading tobacco growing state with some 16,000 acres grown by about 4,000 farmers, mainly in Rock and Dane counties. Continued

Photo: Jack Delano/Library of Congress