158 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



and its crop sells itself. Florida and Smnatra are unquestion- 

 ably the popular tobaccos with manufacturers. Wisconsin 

 leaf is more largely used for wrappers than it was, and New 

 England wrapper leaf is losing its preeminence. While 

 formerly our tobacco commanded the highest price in the 

 domestic markets, it is now in the second place. 



Now, we are all familiar with the whims of manufacturers 

 and smokers. Many of us rememljer the whim for dark 

 Avrappers, Avhen Pennsylvania Avrappers commanded a better 

 price than Connecticut, just because of their dark color. 

 Some of us resweated our leaf, to darken it, so that it could 

 find a market ; and manufacturers are said to have stained 

 their wrappers, or the cigars made from them, to suit the 

 smoker's fancy. 



We have seen the pendulum swing the other way, and 

 heard an equally irrational call by the trade for extra light 

 goods. 



We have lived through a short-lived craze for spotted 

 cigars, Avhen not only the tobacco leaf but the grower and 

 his family and his horse and his dog and everything that was 

 his neighbor's was spotted and made sore with caustic soda. 

 But the patentee of this painful process has gone, and only 

 the tools of the art are left for the museum. 



Now, what does this present call for Sumatra and Florida 

 leaf, to the neglect of our New England wrappers, really 

 mean? Is it a fad or fancy, which will pass like the demand 

 for light or dark or spotted leaf? Is it that wrappers from 

 the places named have a smoothness or finish which the 

 smoker just at present demands, and which Connecticut leaf 

 lacks ? If it is something of this sort, we may go on oiu- Avay 

 and say : "Let the heathen rage, and the people imagine a 

 vain thing. Before a great while they will come back from 

 these strange gods, and ask for the same old reliable goods 

 that New England has been passing out to them this many 

 years." 



But if, on the other hand, this demand for Florida and 

 Sumatra leaf is something other than a fad, if it marks a 

 change in manufacturing or market conditions which is likely 

 to he permanent, then it is time for us to sit up and take 



