c 



methods such as dipping leaf in Hcorice and special 

 sweating to bring about a darker color, were able to re- 

 turn to the standard routines of production. 



There was little difference in the cost of raising to- 

 bacco in the two Valleys. Depending on its proximity to 

 the railroad, good tobacco land was available in the 

 Housatonic Valley at from $50 to $200 an acre in the late 

 1870's. The yield of an acre was about 2,000 pounds, of 

 which three-fifths was suitable as wrappers. The average 

 cost of bringing in an acre of tobacco was $152 in the 

 late 1870's; the gross return averaged around $373 an 

 acre. Farm hands were paid $18 to $20 a month together 

 with room and board. The culture of tobacco was fairly 

 general in Fairfield County and more extensive in Litch- 

 field County in that period. 



raftsmen and. planners 



By 1880 the major cigar-making centers in the states 

 were New York City and Philadelphia. Connecticut 

 makers could only lean on history and remind anyone 

 interested that their fathers had pioneered the industry 

 in the states. The census record of 1880 put Connecticut 

 in 19th place in this manufacturing field. 



There were in that year 125 factories in the state with 

 an output of about 25 million hand-rolled cigars worth 

 $787,383 at the source. (The national production total in 

 that year was around 2.5 billion.) The Internal Revenue 

 Bureau did quite well with cigars and cheroots in fiscal 

 1880; it collected nearly $140,000 in Connecticut from 

 retail sales of those commodities. Cigarettes were hardly 

 worth the bookkeeping— the total tax came to $29.58 in 

 the same period. 



40 



