CONNECTICUT VALLEY CIGAR LEAF TOBACCO. 215 



Table 40. — Number of Tobacco-selling Associations in the United States, 

 classified by States and Type.^ 



' Data for states outside of the Connecticut valley from United States Department of Agri- 

 culture Bulletin No. 547. 



Recommendations. 



After a careful study of the tobacco industry in the valley, the following 

 recommendations are offered : — 



1. There should be in the hands of the farmers more general and definite 

 information concerning the production (acreage, condition and yields) of 

 tobacco. Farmers need to know the condition of the cigar leaf crop in all 

 the cigar leaf producing states. 



2. The grower should have more exact information on market conditions 

 and prices to guide him in selling his crop. 



3. A government reporter should be stationed in the valley to report 

 weekly on the condition of the market and the prices. A weekly news 

 letter should be sent to each tobacco farmer and dealer in the valley. This 

 information should also be published in the newspapers. 



4. Some improvements in sales methods are needed whereby the crop 

 can be sold on its merits. The contract method of sale is fair neither to 

 the buyer nor to the grower. The tobacco is sold while it is growing, 

 or before it is planted, and no one can predict with certainty the quality of 

 the crop. It is simply a gamble; the buyer gambles for the growers' crop, 

 and he sets the price low enough to safeguard himself from loss. 



Tobacco should be handled co-operatively by farmers, as described on 

 page 213. Tliis would permit each crop to be sold on its merits, and would 

 eliminate some useless middlemen. 



5. Farmers shoidd be encouraged to keep cost accounts of production. 

 Not one farmer in a hundred knows what it costs him to grow a crop of 

 tobacco. 



6. Every tobacco grower in the valley should take at least one good 

 tobacco journal. The following journals are satisfactory; *'The Tobacco 



