238 



TOBACCO PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES. 



veins, comparatively tasteless, of fine finish, and very pliant. B. P. Barber, of East Windsor, Connecticut, bus the 

 credit of introducing this tobacco, which has, by skillful and intelligent management, established a reputation 

 second to none grown in the United States. 



Meanwhile factories were erected from time to time, until in 1856 about four hundred men and two hundred 

 women found employment in making cigars at various points from Springfield, Massachusetts, to Middletown, 

 Connecticut, the average wages earned by men being $6, and by women $4 per week, (a) In 1860 there were forty- 

 live of these establishments, with a capital of $389,600, employing 731 persons, at an annual expenditure for wages 

 of $274,911 and for material of $381,150, turning out an annual product estimated to be worth $914,500. In 1X70 

 there, were in Connecticut alone one hundred factories making cigars and manufacturing tobacco, employing 719 

 hands, with a capital amounting to $409,750, expending for wages $303,109, for material $441,663, and turning out 

 a product valued at $1,133,665. 



The demand for raw material created by these manufacturing establishments rapidly stimulated production, 

 and the prices paid were highly remunerative, almost every farmer living within convenient distance for delivery, 

 and who possessed lands suited to the growth of tobacco, endeavoring to supply the demand. 



Mr. Henry A. Dyer is authority for saying that in 1840 1,800 cases, or about 720,000 pounds of tobacco, were 

 packed in the Connecticut valley. The census for that year reports only 537,649 pounds for all -N T ew England, 

 being the crop of 1839. In 1842 the estimated crop in Connecticut valley was 5,000 cases, or 2,000,000 pounds, 

 and in 1845 the product of Connecticut alone was 3,467,940 pounds, as given in a state statistical report. 



The first tobacco grown in the Housatonic valley for market was in 1845, in Kent, Litchfield county ; the next 

 was grown near New Milford ; and in 1870 it became one of the leading products of the valley. Housatonic 

 tobacco became very popular in 1876 for cigar wrappers, and thereafter the increase of product was very rapid. 



TOBACCO PEODUCT. 

 The following table shows the production of New England for each of the census years from 1840 : 



Beginning with the year 1855, Massachusetts has taken a state census, intermediate between those taken by 

 the general government. The state census makes the following- showing for 1855 : 



Conn ties. 



Acres. 



Value. 



It does not appear how many pounds per acre were produced during this year; but if it be estimated at 1,666 

 pounds, which was the yield per acre in 1865, the average value was $136 54 per acre, and $8 20 per hundred 

 pounds. 



In the year 1865 the following statement is given in the Massachusetts state census : 



832 



a Connecticut Agricultural Report, 1856. 



