8 THE PRODUCTION OF TOBACCO UNDER SHADE. 
charge of the fermenting, grading, and packing of the raw product. 
In order to get this tobacco (about 300 bales) on the market and to 
secure as widespread a distribution of it as possible among the trade, 
it was deemed advisable to sell the entire lot by auction. Accord- 
ingly, on May 2, 1902, in the Foot Guards Hall, at Hartford, Conn., 
the tobacco was sold, bale by bale, to the highest bidder. The 
results were very satisfactory. “Some of the bales sold for as much as 
$2.65 a pound, and one crop of 5 acres averaged for all grades $1.65 
a pound, paying the grower $1,000 an acre above all expenses. 
Time was not given for the purchasers of this tobacco to report on 
its merits. The result of the sale was accepted as bona fide evidence 
of the success of the new industry. The newspapers took up the cry 
that the salvation of the Connecticut farmer was at hand. There 
were to be no more hard times. Raising tobacco in Connecticut 
under shade was a surer road to riches than digging the yellow metal 
from the richest mines in the Rocky Mountains. Consequently, 
stock companies for growing tobacco were formed, and almost every 
farmer who could borrow a few thousand dollars (and borrowing was 
easy in the sight of such prosperity) grew shade tobacco. Men who 
had never been attracted by the tobacco industry now sought to 
purchase farms on which to produce tobacco by this new method, 
and seed was purchased indiscriminately in Florida at the very high 
price of $2 an ounce. 
The shade-tobacco area spread from 41 acres in 1901 to more than 
700 acres in 1902, an enormous growth for a new industry. The 
season of 1902 proved to be cold and wet. Many of the growers 
had poor varieties, and more of them did*not know enough of the 
methods in use to enable them to produce a good quality of tobacco. 
The result was that almost all who had undertaken this new method 
of producing tobacco found themselves without money and with no 
market for their goods. Many of the companies and some of the 
farmers went into bankruptcy and sold their shade tobacco at a loss of 
from 75 to 90 percent. The remainder pulled through badly crippled 
and, thinking that the poor quality of their tobacco was entirely 
due to an unfavorable season, tried to recuperate by growing shade 
tobacco another year. The results were, perhaps, even more unfa- 
vorable than the previous year, the industry being counted a failure 
and the cause of heavy financial losses. 
In the year 1903 the attention of the Bureau of Plant Industry 
was called to the failure of shade tobacco in Connecticut, and as the 
Department of Agriculture had had much to do in promoting the 
industry it was thought necessary to do everything possible to deter- 
mine the cause of the failure and apply the remedy. 
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