172 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



It is not, however, the swan song of a decadent industry 

 which is doomed. 



The situation which I have indicated will not come on us 

 suddenly, — it may not come at all. We may adopt the 

 liap})y-go-lucky philosophy of the New York street arab : 

 "Keep cool ; it won't last ; nothin' does." 



There will probably always be a demand for good, sound 

 Connecticut leaf for cigar wrappers at some living price, but 

 we shall never again have a practical monopoly of high- 

 priced wrapper leaf. 



To sum up what I have tried to make clear in this talk : — 



New trade conditions make demands as to cigar wrappers 

 which our product does not at present meet. 



Its defects are : — 



First, the leaf is not as uniform as it should be in any 

 respect. Particularly is this true of its shape, size, colors 

 and burn. 



Second, it is less profitable than that of our chief com- 

 petitors, in that it is too large to cut to the best advantage, 

 and the cases are not evenly fermented, the linings often 

 needino; to be resweat. 



Third, the packings of individual growers are too small and 

 too unlike to make it easy to secure large quantities of uni- 

 form wrappers from them. 



We need to do all we can to overcome these defects : — 



First, by careful selection and breeding of our seed 

 towards uniformity of size and shape of leaf. 



Second, by greater care in the use of fertilizers, and, as 

 far as possible, unifonnity in our tobacco formulas. 



Third, by improvement, if possible, in the sorting, sweat- 

 ing and casing of the leaf, on the part of dealers. 



Fourth, by co-operation with the agricultural stations and 

 the United States Department of Agriculture in the thorough 

 testing of types of wrapper leaf different from what we now 

 use. 



And, lastly, we need to remember that tobacco growing 

 is not to be exempt from the fierce competition which besets 

 all modem business ; and that the successful man is the one 

 who furnishes what the trade wants, rather than what he 

 knows the trade oiujld to want. 



