CARE AND CULTIVATION OF TOBACCO IN CONN. VALLEY. I7I 



THE CARE AND CULTIVATION OF TOBACCO IN 

 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. 



By Mr. W. F. Andross, East Hartford, Conn. 



Many years ago, almost with the advent of agriculture in 

 the Connecticut valley, whose fertile soils early attracted the 

 attention of the settlers, the farmers of those days began, in 

 a very modest way, to cultivate a plant adopted from Virginian 

 soils. The settlers of Virginia received it from the island of 

 Cuba, where it was discovered by the Spaniards under Colum- 

 bus. It having been used for centuries by the native Indians, 

 according to their statement, by whom it was called " Uppo- 

 woc," and, receiving its first introduction to the civilized world 

 through Sir Walter Raleigh, it soon spread and became a source 

 of much revenue to the planters of Virginia, who in 1620, the 

 time of the pilgrim fathers, were shipping to England large 

 quantities of the leaf, where it was already a government 

 monopoly. At just what time this plant was first cultivated in 

 the Connecticut valley is unknown, but at first it was only for 

 individual purposes, or as a curiosity. It was a long time 

 afterward before it became a commodity of trade. At first the 

 methods of growing it were extremely crude and unsatis- 

 factory ; but from this small beginning the plant grew and 

 thrived on the virgin soils of the valley until in agricultural 

 importance it overshadows all others, and in its insidious way 

 it crept all over the world. Its influence is felt in every country, 

 whether civilized or savage. Many strange things may be 

 said of this remarkable plant. From this green plant, growing 

 with mushroom rapidity, not very imposing to the eye, there 

 emanates an influence felt the world over. There has been 

 more literature produced on this subject than on any other ap- 

 pertaining to the virtues of one plant, there being, in the library 

 of nicotines in New York, over 300 volumes devoted to this 

 plant alone. It will grow wider in extremes of climate, more 

 legislation has been passed upon it, and more stringent laws 

 prohibitive of its cultivation and use than any plant known. 

 It is more universally known and used than any plant in 

 nature's category. Many governments have made its culti- 

 vation or use a crime, and ended by making it a government 

 monopoly. At one period at least it has been legal tender in 

 the state of Virginia. An eminent savant has said that America 



