NEW ENGLAND TOBACCO. 77 



nsed solely for smoking. About 1835 the plant received 

 more attention from the formers living in the Connecticut 

 valley containing some of the iinest tobacco land in the coun- 

 try. They found by repeated trials that the soil was well 

 adapted to the production of a finer leaf tobacco than any 

 they had ever seen. At this time Kentucky and Havana 

 tobacco were used in the manufacture of cigars, but on testing 

 American tobacco or as it is now known u Connecticut seed 

 leaf" it was found to make the finest wrappers yet produced, 

 and consequently the best looking cigars. From that time 

 its reputation has kept pace with its cultivation, until it now 

 enjoys a world wide popularity. As a wrapping tobacco it 

 towers far above the seed products of other states and can 

 never have a successful competitor in the other varieties now 

 cultivated in the Middle and "Western States. Doubtless 

 America furnishes the finest varieties of the plant now culti- 

 vated, suited for all kinds of manufacturing, and adapted to 

 all the various forms in which it is used. 



The great diversity of soil and climate renders this prob- 

 able while actual experiments and improved methods of cul- 

 ture have demonstrated it to a certainty. Thousands of 

 hogsheads, cases, and bales are annually shipped to all parts 

 of the world and the demand for American tobacco is greater 

 than for the varieties grown in the Old World. More than 

 two hundred and fifty years have passed since the London 

 and Plymouth Companies began its cultivation in the Old 

 Dominion, and on the same soil where the red man grew his 

 "uppowac." Virginia leaf still continues to flourish, and 

 to-day it is the great agricultural product of the State. 



From a small beginning, like the plant itself it has 

 developed into a great and increasing industry and its culture 

 become a source of wealth unprecedented in agricultural 

 history. Could the sapient James I. and his successors the 

 Stuarts, now look upon this cherished production of the 

 world, they would discover a commercial prosperity connected 

 with those nations which have fostered and encouraged its 

 growth far in advance of those who have frowned upon the 



