It was the latter that received approval as best for 

 growing under shade in Connecticut soil, and potentially 

 the most profitable. That was in 1910. Time was to con- 

 firm the correctness of the choice. Seed selection among 

 Connecticut Valley farmers became so expert and so 

 precise that experienced Cuban farmers turned to buy- 

 ing tobacco seeds from the Yankees. 



w. 



hat the country needed 



The use of cigars in the United States had reached a 

 point by 1904 where 60 cents of the tobacco-consumer's 

 dollar went for that article. An increasing demand for 

 cigar leaf raised production in Connecticut so that by 

 1921 a record was established. In that year the harvest 

 of all cigar types was over 44.3 million pounds, with a 

 crop value of nearly $14 million. Wrapper leaf accounted 

 for more than 13 percent of the total production with a 

 value close to $6 million. The high mark of domestic 

 sales had been 1920, when over 8 billion cigars were 

 passed across to customers at retail counters. 



T 



he century of cooperatives 



In an effort to maintain fair prices for their product, 

 Connecticut farmers instituted a novel marketing pat- 

 tern in the United States. A warehouse system had been 

 organized at Hartford in 1852 by one Seymour whose 

 first name is lost somewhere in the archives. This was the 

 original of a series of cooperatives formed by Connecti- 



46 



