Its chief use was as fillers of inexpensive cigars, and 

 production continued until the early 1830's. Then it was 

 supplanted by a broad-leaf variety, which had been 

 recently introduced into Connecticut from Maryland. 

 This tobacco, with thin, delicate, smooth leaves was very 

 pliant, almost tasteless, and, therefore, most suitable as 

 a cigar wrapper. The first successful culture of cigar leaf 

 in the United States began in the Connecticut Valley. 



T 



he "rolling trade" 



Having discovered the cigar, more than three cen- 

 turies after it had first been seen by Spanish explorers 

 in the West Indies, a considerable number of people 

 went energetically into its manufacture. It was at first 

 a household industry. Women and youngsters turned 

 out the brown rolls which were then bartered for store 

 goods. Cigars of doubtful vintage could be bought for 

 a penny; the better-made and better-tasting ones cost 

 two cents. 



Then factories as sucli began to appear. By 1831 towns 

 in Essex County were producing a total of up to 20 

 million hand-rolled cigars a year, but these were largely 

 from imported Cuban leaf. Yet there were still devotees 

 of chewing and smoking tobacco around, and they were 

 supplied by manufacturers in the Lynn area who had 

 developed a lucrative business by 1808. 



T 



roplcal transplant 



The harvests of new Broadleaf grown in Massachu- 

 setts showed an annual increase in the years following 

 its introduction. The crop total of around 65,000 pounds 

 in 1840 was fifty times greater by 1860. Wrapper leaf 

 brought $40 the hundred pounds in 1857. In the last war 

 year, 1865, harvests reached over 9.3 million pounds 

 valued at more than $1.6 million. 



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