CONNECTICUT VALLEY CIGAR LEAF TOBACCO. 203 



and these low prices are made the basis for future purchases. Sometimes 

 a buj-er will offer a farmer a fair price for his tobacco and the offer will be 

 refused. A few days later a second buyer will come along and offer a price 

 just a little lower, and a third buj^er a price a little lower still. By this 

 time the grower is growing fearful that he cannot sell his crop, so lets 

 it go for a low price. 



Apparently this is a scheme agreed upon bv the buj^ers. In 1915 one 

 man in the valley was offered 12 cents a pound for his tobacco, a little later 

 9 cents, and finally it sold for 6 cents. The quality of the crop was as 

 good when it was finally sold for 6 cents as it was when the first man offered 

 12 cents. Other growers report similar experiences. This has been the 

 practice in the Connecticut valley ever since the industry was established. 

 The farmer who has held for a good price has frequently been boycotted 

 by the buyers. Hence, reliable growers have had to sell crops of good 

 quality at a low figure just because their neighbors sold early and at a low 

 price. 



This practice did not work well during the war because of the growing 

 scarcity of tobacco. The growers who sold late in the season got the best 

 prices. However, the old practice bids fair to be resumed just as soon as 

 the supply of tobacco has been sufficiently increased. In fact, the decline 

 in price, beginning about Oct. 1, 1918, was held by many to be due to the 

 determined effort on the part of buyers to depress the price. From Sep- 

 tember, 1918, through January, 1919, few farmers received any offer what- 

 ever for their crops. A few were offered 25 to 30 cents a pound for tobacco 

 for which formerly they had been offered 45 cents a pound. 



Prices to Farmers. 



As has been noted, tobacco is sold in the Connecticut valley by contract, 

 the buyer frequently contracting for the grower's crop while it is growing 

 or even before it is planted. This factor has probably been the main 

 reason why prices to the farmer have been comparatively low. The crop 

 has not been sold on its merits, and consequently the farmer has had to take 

 whatever the buyer offered him. Fig. 17 shows that the supply and price 

 of tobacco in New England bear very little relation to each other. For 

 example, during the years 1910-12 the supply gradually increased, likewise 

 the price. In 1912-13 the supply and the price quite uniformly decreased. 

 In 1914-15 the supply decreased and the price also decreased, but not with 

 any uniformity. The quality of the 1915 crop was, however, very poor. 

 The only years that show any normal relation between the supply and 

 price were 1904-05, 1913-14 and 1916-17. The great demand for tobacco 

 from 1916-17 is the chief reason for the rapidly advancing price. 



Ordinarily when the supply increases the price decreases, and vice versa, 

 but no such relationship is exhibited in this figure. This is due partly to 

 the fact that tobacco can be held for a number of years, permitting only 

 slight fluctuations in prices. Partly, however, it is due to the fact that the 



