386 ORIGIN OF THIS VARIETY. 
also is very firm and strong, and sufficiently elastic to bear 
considerable manipulating in manufacture. The various 
shades also of the two colors, dark and light brown or cinna- 
mon, are among the finest and most delicate of any to be 
found among the numerous kinds of tobacco used for cigars. 
The color of the wrapper, however, is merely a matter of . 
taste; when first used for a wrapper the color in demand was 
a dark brown or cinnamon, now it is light cinnamon leaf that 
is the most fashionable, and'leaf of this color is considered 
the finest and of the most delicate flavor. As a superior 
burning tobacco, seed leaf especially commends itself, and 
while all of the seed products of the various states producing 
this description of tobacco, are remarkable for their good 
burning qualities, none are more so than Connecticut seed 
leaf. 
Thorough cultivation by the growers has made this quality 
of tobacco the most profitable of any grown in the United 
States. Some considerable controversy has arisen among 
tobacco-growers concerning the origin of this famous variety. 
One opinion sets forth that it sprung from plants or seeds 
brought from Virginia, while another is that tobacco seed 
from Cuba gave it origin. Most probably the former theory 
is correct, as the plant was cultivated in gardens in New Eng- 
land, during the reign of Charles I. 
However this may be, the system of cultivation pursued 
has been successful in the production of a leaf tobacco that 
can hardly be improved, so far as the texture of the leaf is 
concerned. Some of the “selections” of seed leaf have that 
fine soft feeling peculiar to satin or silks, and we have seen 
specimens of such selections, that seemed almost destitute of 
veins, or anything that would naturally suggest that it was a 
leaf. In this respect it is quite remarkable, for while the 
leaf is very large the stem and veins are quite small, no 
larger than in many varieties with a much smaller leaf. 
From its first cultivation in the Connecticut valley, the 
quality has gradually improved until now, and it seems at 
last to-possess almost every feature desirable in a good wrapper. 
