he stream of supplies 



Tobacco farming in Massachusetts makes necessarily 

 heavy demands on the resources of equipment manu- 

 facturers, and on suppHers of materials and services, 

 many outside the state. Millions of yards of cotton cloth, 

 for instance, are required annually. It takes the harvest 

 of an acre of southern cotton to supply the cloth needed 

 for an acre of shade-grown leaf. Farmers producing this 

 tobacco will need for each acre many thousand feet 

 of sewing twine for tents, two tons of plant nutrient, 

 and other materials. All this is apart from heavy equip- 

 ment, tools, galvanized wire, building construction 

 and the other numerous requirements of a specialized 

 agriculture. 



In Massachusetts alone there are 60 firms, some exten- 

 sive in their operations, that provide materials, equip- 

 ment and services to tobacco farmers. 



s 



hipping leaf 



Substantial quantities of wrapper and far smaller 

 amounts of binder leaf are export commodities. Nearly 

 1.7 million pounds of shade-grown tobacco, valued at 

 about $5 million, went overseas in 1970, chiefly to West 

 Germany and Canada, with the Valley providing a 

 substantial portion. Binder leaf of the Havana Seed 

 type— about 481,000 pounds of it at a cost of about 

 $500,000 to foreign buyers— was shipped out in 1970, 

 most of it to Spain and West Germany. As far more 

 Havana Seed is grown in Massachusetts than in Con- 

 necticut, farms in the former state supplied the major 

 part of this exportation. 



12 



