necticut could supply a usable wrapper. A Bridgeport 

 trader, John Moody, having on hand several tons of leaf 

 acquired at the extremely low price of two cents a 

 pound, sold the lot to a New York manufacturer. The 

 latter had an oversupply of Havana filler but no wrapper 

 leaf. His new purchase admirably met his requirements. 



Thereafter, cigar manufacturers in New York turned 

 to Connecticut farmers for wrappers. The price of 

 Broadleaf wrapper around 1843 was seven cents a 

 pound. The new market resulted in a steady rise in the 

 price for a number of years. Connecticut crops of the 

 newest type were sufficient to supply the major domestic 

 factories, and considerable quantities were exported to 

 Bremen, Germany. From there Connecticut leaf came 

 back to America in the form of inexpensive cigars. 

 Manufacturing in the states now had a solid base for 

 expansion. Improved methods of fermenting leaf and 

 the use of Cuban filler and Connecticut wrapper re- 

 sulted in a cigar, the "Seed and Havana" type, which 

 grew in consumer acceptance. 



Owing to an expanding market Connecticut tobacco 

 farmers followed a usual pattern and overproduced. 

 Other factors added to their difficulties : increasing com- 

 petition from the filler grown in Pennsylvania and Ohio, 

 and the panic of 1873 whicli, for a wliile, caused a drop 

 in the consumption of cigars. 



Y. 



ankee Havana 



Various trials with the sun-drenched seeds of Havana 

 tobacco, supplied by the U. S. Department of Agricul- 

 ture, had been made in the Valley since 1840 but results 



35 



