386 ORIGIN OF THIS VARIETY. 



also is very firm and strong, and sufficiently elastic to bear 

 considerable manipulating in manufacture. The various 

 shades also of the two colors, dark and light brown or cinna- 

 mon, are among the finest and most delicate of any to be 

 found among the numerous kinds of tobacco used for cigars. 

 The color of the wrapper, however, is merely a matter of 

 taste ; when first used for a wrapper the color in demand was 

 a dark brown or cinnamon, now it is light cinnamon leaf that 

 is the most fashionable, and leaf of this color is considered 

 the finest and of the most delicate flavor. As a superior 

 burning tobacco, seed leaf especially commends itself, and 

 while all of the seed products of the various states producing 

 this description of tobacco, are remarkable for their good 

 burning qualities, none are more so than Connecticut seed 

 leaf. 



Thorough cultivation by the growers has made this quality 

 of tobacco the most profitable of any grown in the United 

 States. Some considerable controversy has arisen among 

 tobacco-growers concerning the origin of this famous variety. 

 One opinion sets forth that it sprung from plants or seeds 

 brought from Virginia, while another is that tobacco seed 

 from Cuba gave it origin. Most probably the former theory 

 is correct, as the plant was cultivated in gardens in New Eng- 

 land, during the reign of Charles I. 



However this may be, the system of cultivation pursued 

 has been successful in the production of a leaf tobacco that 

 can hardly be improved, so far as the texture of the leaf is 

 concerned. Some of the " selections " of seed leaf have that 

 fine soft feeling peculiar to satin or silks, and we have seen 

 specimens of such selections, that seemed almost destitute of 

 veins, or anything that would naturally suggest that it was a 

 leaf. In this respect it is quite remarkable, for while the 

 leaf is very large the stem and veins are quite small, no 

 larger than ,in many varieties with a much smaller leaf. 

 From its first cultivation in the Connecticut valley, the 

 quality has gradually improved until now, and it seems at 

 last to possess almost every feature desirable in a good wrapper. 



