By the end of thq 17th century cured leaf was bring- 

 ing a better price in Connecticut than the average two 

 pence per pound for which it was selhng in Virginia. At 

 Windsor, the original area of tobacco culture, neighbors 

 were paying farmers 3% to 6 pence per pound. In that 

 period any properly aired room of a private house could 

 serve to cure tobacco. (Separate curing bams were still 

 some time off.) An indication of this practice appeared 

 incidentally in a reference to an Indian attack on a house 

 in the Connecticut \' alley town of Deerfield in 1694: 

 "Sara Belding, another of ye daughters, hid herself 

 among some tobacco in ye chamber and so escaped." 



'oals to Newcastle 



By the early 1700's, enough of the leaf was being 

 grown in and around Wethersfield and Windsor to leave 

 a residue for export. A number of Connecticut exporters 

 found a small but fairly profitable market in Barbados 

 and the other parts of the British West Indies where 

 slaves had expressed a preference for a strong, heavy 

 smoke. Small shipments were sometimes sent to England 

 by barter merchants. All the exportations were ordi- 

 narily a part of mixed cargoes. Ship owners occasionally 

 advertised for a ton or more of "Windsor tobacco" to 

 help fill a hold. 



A casual manufacturing was being carried on through 

 the processing of leaves into rolls and twists ("pigtail")— 

 an old, Spanish-colonial form. When exported, some of 

 these brought higher prices abroad than Connecticut 

 leaf in bulk, as indicated by a price range of 2 pence to 

 8 pence per pound. 



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