B 



the harvests of this tvpe, produced on 1,800 acres, to- 

 taled about 2.5 niilhon pounds. 



Havana Seed, essentially a cigar-binder t\'pe, had a 

 crop total in 1970 of 800,000 pounds. Havana Seed 

 has for some time been eligible for government price 

 support. Under the system of federal marketing quotas, 

 216 allotments for a total acreage of 1,355 were granted 

 in 1970. In that year well under half the available acre- 

 age was used. 



A third type, though very much in the background 

 for the past several decades, requires mention. This is 

 Broadleaf, classified as a binder type. Its leaves were 

 occasionally used for fillers— the core of a cigar— and, in 

 its best grades, for wrappers. Broadleaf was never in 

 large-scale production in Massachusetts though long a 

 crop of the Connecticut areas of the Valley. 



uyers and technologists 



There is a wide spread in tlie cash value of shade- 

 grown wrapper and Havana Seed binder leaf. The 1970 

 crops of the thin, elastic, silken wrapper leaf brought 

 $10.4 million, a yield of about $4,100 an acre. The farm- 

 sales price of this tobacco, around $3.16 a pound in 1970, 

 is frequently well below what a cigar manufacturer may 

 have to pay for it. Labor, storage, transportation and 

 other costs sometimes bring the price of the best wrap- 

 per leaf to $7.00 a pound. 



Massachusetts-grown Havana Seed earned a total of 

 $480,000 for tlie 1970 crop, a little over 60 cents a pound. 

 The Connecticut Vallev tvpes are regarded as "the 

 cream of the binder crops." Binder leaf is used to shape 

 and hold the filler of a cigar. In its cured state natural 

 leaf has elasticity, is aromatic, and has good burning 

 quality. A portion of best leaves still goes into binders— 



