B. P. I.—402. 
THE PRODUCTION OF CIGAR-WRAPPER TOBACCO 
UNDER SHADE IN THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. 
DEVELOPMENT OF THE PRODUCTION OF TOBACCO UNDER SHADE. 
The method of producing tobacco under shade originated in 
Florida about 1896. The adoption of artificial shade was slow, and 
much labor and expense was incurred in experiments. In a few 
years, however, the tobacco produced by this method began to take 
its place in the trade among the higher class of gocds and a demand 
was created for it. 
It was at this time that the officials of the Connecticut Agricultural 
Experiment Station conferred with the representatives of the Bureau 
of Soils of the United States Department of Agriculture as to the 
advisability of conducting an experiment with the object of improving 
the wrapper tobacco in the Connecticut Valley by the adoption of 
the shade method. As a result of the agreement reached, a joint 
experiment was conducted in 1900, and one-third of an acre of tobacco 
from Florida Sumatra seed was produced under shade. 
This tobacco was fermented, assorted, and packed, and when 
offered for sale brought 72 cents a pound. The judges who examined 
the tobacco, as well as the manufacturers who used it, pronounced it 
equal, if not superior, to the tobacco imported from the island of 
Sumatra. No accurate account of the expense of producing this 
tobacco was kept, and it could not be determined whether at the price 
mentioned the industry would be profitable to the growers, the object 
of the experiment being solely to determine whether a marketable 
tobacco with merit could be produced in Connecticut under shade. 
At this stage of the development of the industry the cooperative 
agreement referred to was discontinued, the State agricultural experi- 
ment station and the Bureau of Soils continuing to work along their 
own lines. 
In 1901 about 41 acres of tobacco were produced under shade, the 
Bureau of Soils furnishing experienced men to instruct the farmers 
in cultivating, harvesting, and shed-curing the crop, and to take 
138 ’s 
