CULTURE AND CURING IN NEW ENGLAND. 



237 



Artificial sweating is believed by some of the best dealers to be accompanied with less risk than sweating by 

 the natural process, and the second stories of warehouses are sometimes prepared as sweating chambers by being 

 plastered or closely ceiled. These are heated by furnaces, aud the temperature of the rooms is kept at 110 to 140. 

 About forty-two days are required to complete the process, when the tobacco is ready for market. 



Any one can become an inspector by guaranteeing the samples drawn from a case to represent correctly the 

 quality of the tobacco aud its condition in the case. These samples are, however, usually drawn by inspectors sent 

 out from other places, or. by agents representing houses in other cities. 



The great bulk of the tobacco, after being cured and sweated, finds its way to New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore r 

 Cincinnati, Saint Louis, Hartford, and other points where there is a regular demand for cigar tobacco, and is marketed 

 at all times. Farmers, however, usually deliver the crop to local dealers in the winter and spring, and the latter 

 usually keep a supply on hand throughout the year. 



The tobacco product of Wisconsin is the tenderest of all the seed-leaf products, and in working must be handled 

 with great care. In consequence of the great absorptive capacity of the leaf, much of it is damaged by extreme 

 fermentation during wet, hot weather. Nor does it answer well for exportation, the sea sweat greatly damaging it. 



The following statement will show the production, acreage, yield per acre, and value of the Wisconsin crop for 

 the four years ending in 1879, the figures for the latter year being from the census returns : 



CHAPTEE XIX. 

 THE NEW ENGLAND TOBACCO-GROWING DISTRICT. 



HISTOEIGAL NOTES. 



The culture of tobacco in the Connecticut valley is almost coeval with its first settlement. As early as 164O 

 an act was passed restricting the use of tobacco to that grown in the colony, under a penalty of 5s. for every pound 

 expended for imported tobacco, " except a license should first be obtained from the court." Under this restriction 

 the culture, as well as its use, became general, and efforts were made by the colonists in 1646-'47 to curtail its 

 consumption by a prohibitory law, which acted upon the consumer, but not upon the merchant, trader, or farmer. 

 This law provided that no one under the age of twenty years, nor any other person who had not become addicted 

 to the habit, should take any tobacco without a certificate from a physician that it would be beneficial to him. It 

 also provided that tobacco should not be taken publicly upon the streets, under the penalty of sixpence for each 

 offense. 



In 1662 a duty of 25s. per hogshead, or 2d. per pound, was laid upon all tobacco brought into the colony. In 

 1753 inspectors were appointed to examine the tobacco for shipment abroad, and to take out all that was in any way 

 injured by frost, heat, moisture, or in other manner, and to pack only the sound, well-ripened, well-cured tobacco, 

 which should in every way be good aud merchantable. For this service the owner was required to pay 5d. for 

 every hundred-weight and 3d. per mile for travel of the inspector, and all tobacco sold without inspection was 

 declared forfeited. 



At no period previous to 1801 did the production of the Connecticut valley exceed 20,000 pounds, and it was 

 shipped for the most part to the West Indies, being purchased at from $3 to $3 33 per hundred pounds by local 

 merchants, by whom it was packed and exported. 



About 1801-'2 tobacco was manufactured in a small way by individuals j but it was not until 1810 that cigar 

 manufactories were established one at East Windsor and another at Suffield, Connecticut. Spanish tobacco, 

 imported from Cuba or the Brazils, was then for the first time employed in the fabrication of cigars, and these were 

 peddled in wagons throughout the country. 



The year 1825 marked a new era in the history of tobacco culture in the valley, and a packing-house was erected 

 at Warehouse Point, about 3,200 pounds being packed and shipped to New York. This tobacco was packed in 

 bales, inclosed with boards on four sides, leaving the ends exposed, and weighed about 100 pounds each. The 

 cultivation was gradually extended, and in 1840 it was a general crop, though small, grown as regularly as any 

 other in the valley. 



Previous to the year 1833 a variety of tobacco, with a very narrow leaf, called the Shoestring, was cultivated, 

 which, though strong and heavy, was not well adapted to the purposes for which Connecticut tobacco is now used. 

 About this time a broad leaf variety was brought from Maryland, having a very delicate, thin, silky leaf, regular 



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