USA > Connecticut > Tercentenary pamphlet series, v. 3 The Beginnings of Roman Catholicism in Connecticut > Part 27
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During the last quarter of the century the poetry of Connecticut had effective representatives in Edward Rowland Sill (1841-1887) and Edmund Clarence Sted- man (1833-1908). Both these were bookish men. Sill, whose later career led him to the University of California as professor of English literature, revealed his sincere, intellectual quest of truth in "The prayer." Stedman, a more forceful spirit, after an enforced withdrawal from Yale, returned to his alma mater twice to receive hon-
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orary degrees. An editor of mountainous anthologies and "libraries" of literature, Stedman was also a capable though not a distinguished critic. As a poet he belongs in the conventional tradition of English verse. He was an earnest, tireless, competent man of letters.
Perhaps the chronicle grows tedious. Certainly that disunity of aim, already described, becomes evident. For the thin, dry stream of literature of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries has become in the nineteenth a river, not deep but broad, bearing along innumerable authors. These are linked to national tendencies by in- escapable ties, but are distinguished by no indigenous traits which can properly be called Connecticut's. Since the first quarter of the nineteenth century minor writer has followed minor writer. Both poetry and prose have afforded examples: Henry Clay Work (1832-1884), George Denison Prentice (1802-1870), Emma Hart Willard (1787-1870), Rose Terry Cooke (1827-1892)- all natives of Connecticut. So was Horace Bushnell, distinguished in theological study and in philosophical essay. Bronson Alcott (1799-1888), born in Wolcott, wandered off to Concord. Mark Twain (1835-1910) came to Hartford. Samuel Griswold Goodrich (1793-1860), born in Ridgefield, became a Massachusetts magazinist. Donald Grant Mitchell ("Ik Marvel," 1822-1908), living at Edgewood, near New Haven, wrote his readable Reveries of a bachelor (1850) and other reminiscent essays in the manner of Irving. Charles Dudley Warner (1829- 1900) settled in Hartford, to know Mark Twain, and to write Being a boy (1877) and other tranquil papers.
VIII
HERE are, then, in the library, hundreds of books, from Wolcott to Warner, the records of three centuries of
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Connecticut's cultural experience. What sediment re- mains? First, it must be admitted that in these volumes there is not, so to speak, any distinct state-consciousness -no absorbing desire to write definitely for and about Connecticut. Any attempt to limit the literature of Con- necticut to an entity with special characteristics must fail. To find such peculiar traits one must turn to less seasoned communities-to the literature, for example, of Indiana or of Louisiana, whose nineteenth-century litera- tures bear the imprint of a nativistic point of view toward life. The reason for this is clear. The full flavor of Connecticut as a community peculiar to itself reached its peak in the last decades of the eighteenth century. Then there existed a rural life, self-sustained, compact, and self-sufficient. Yet the writers capable of describing this community adequately had not yet been born. And when they had appeared, the essential modes of the old, rural Connecticut had faded, dissolved necessarily from its geographical situation into the larger whole. Hence the only pictures of the essential Connecticut of the eighteenth century occur in the writings of the Wits (not a complete picture it is true, but the best available), and also in the humorous exaggeration of its neighbors, as in Irving's vignettes in A history of New York. In contrast, Louisiana and Indiana, to repeat the examples, retained their essential characteristics coincident with the writing of modern literature. But recent Connecticut writers have dealt with a civilized and urbanized community or with subjects not peculiar to the state. Thus the true, the old Connecticut has entered into literature but faintly, incidentally, inconclusively.
Yet looking at the poetry and prose of the writers who have had associations with Connecticut one can hardly regret this fact. It is something to have been the cause of
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literature in others. It is something to have given Bron- son Alcott to Massachusetts, to have bestowed Willis on New York, to have educated (partly) Cooper, to have calmed and civilized the older Mark Twain. The litera- ture of the Western states, even if it is more closely knit with their actual life, can point to no such seminal power. The literature of Connecticut early partook of the deeper cultural experiences of the nation, and such mergence of the local into the national in literature is a proof of the state's rapid growth in the things of the mind.
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TERCENTENARY COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT
QUI
SUSTINET
TRAŃSTULIT
COMMITTEE ON HISTORICAL PUBLICATIONS
LII The History of Tobacco Production in Connecticut
ADRIAN FRANCIS McDONALD
PUBLISHED FOR THE TERCENTENARY COMMISSION BY THE YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1936
TERCENTENARY COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT COMMITTEE ON HISTORICAL PUBLICATIONS
LII The History of Tobacco Production in Connecticut
ADRIAN FRANCIS McDONALD
T
I OBACCO growing is one of the oldest means of earning a livelihood in Connecticut. Rec- ords show conclusively that the aborigines of the Connecticut valley understood the more fundamental features of tobacco production and con- sumption as practised today.
Tobacco growing by the Indians was a very crude process, as indeed was all agriculture at that time. To- bacco was the only crop raised by the red men which was cared for by the males of the family. The men alone tended the crop and smoked it. Little is known of the methods of culture, but they only dimly foreshadowed present-day systems. Apparently some tribes had perma- nent beds which received but little attention other than an occasional application of manure. It is known, how- ever, that tobacco was grown apart from other crops as it was believed to harm them.
In the agriculture of Connecticut, tobacco production has averaged well over thirty-three per cent of the total
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crop value since 1923, although, at the same time, hay and corn greatly exceeded it in acreage. During the five years, 1923-1927, the tobacco value per acre was almost double that of any other crop; in 1928 it was more than three times that of potatoes; and in 1929 it was substan- tially more than double the value of potatoes, the second most valuable Connecticut crop per acre.
Not only is tobacco important to the growers them- selves but also to the thousands of workers who depend upon each year's crop for their livelihood. It is impossible to determine the actual number of workers who are directly or indirectly dependent upon the Connecticut leaf tobacco industry. However, unofficial estimates fix the number of full and part-time employees on tobacco plantations at seven thousand. Those indirectly con- nected with the industry number tens of thousands. They include cigar-makers, employees of fertilizer plants and of cotton mills, cigar-box makers, wholesalers of leaf and cigars, and even clerks in neighborhood cigar stores.
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THERE is no historical record of the first white man to grow tobacco in Connecticut, but there is evidence that tobacco was raised at Windsor as early as 1640. In all probability, therefore, the first white tobacco grower was one of the original settlers. The leaf grown by the early colonists was the same as that raised by the Connecticut valley Indians for many years prior to the settlement by white men. According to contemporary historians it was variously called poke or ottomauch. The small round leaves of the Indian type were different from those which were early brought to the valley from Virginia. This latter variety had been introduced into Virginia from the West Indies in 1607. Dislike by the early New Eng-
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landers of the bitter taste of the native tobacco led to the substitution of the West Indian type for the original Indian variety.
The principal use of tobacco by the Indians was for smoking in a pipe. Ordinarily the leaves and flowers of the plant were cured and mixed with sumac leaves and other ingredients, according to particular tribal formu- lae, and smoked in pipes. The pipe-smoking habit was adopted by the colonists who soon, however, began to discontinue the use of Indian tobacco and substitute the new leaf brought in from Virginia. The second known method of consuming tobacco was to roll the leaves into cigars and smoke it in that manner. This habit was known to exist among the Indians but was of less importance than pipe smoking. Nothing like the modern cigar, how- ever, was known in New England until after 1760. Roger Williams reported that tobacco was largely used for smoking but one kind was steeped and the "decoction" drunk. Little is known of this method of tobacco con- sumption.
In 1640 occurred the first legislation in the Connecticut colony relative to the use of tobacco. This legislation was patterned after that of Massachusetts, which preceded it. Briefly stated, the law of 1640 provided that no one in Connecticut should "drinke" any tobacco except that which "shall be planted within these libertyes," unless that person had license to do so. The penalty for viola- tion of the statute was five shillings "for every pownd so spent." In 1646 this law was repealed and apparently the use of tobacco rapidly increased for in 1647 another was passed to lessen the abuse of the drug. In part it pro- hibited the use of tobacco to all under twenty years, and all others who had not already accustomed themselves to it, except on presentation of a certificate from some one
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"approued for knowledg & skill in phisicke, that it is use- full for him." The first part of the above law has its modern counterpart in present-day tobacco legislation for minors and the second section had a recent version in liquor laws permitting physicians to prescribe alcoholic spirits to patients during the years of prohibition. The act of 1647 further provided that no one should use the weed publicly or in the "fyelds or woods" unless he were traveling at least ten miles. Nor was one allowed to take tobacco in any house in his own town in company with more than one other who "useth or drinketh the same weed, with him at that tyme." Most of the controversy seems to have been waged over "drinking" tobacco and its ill effects, particularly idleness.
Until the eighteenth century most of the tobacco raised in Connecticut was for private use. Some was, however, grown for sale to neighbors. During the early period, tobacco was grown in most of the towns of the colony. With the increase in the production of tobacco for sale it became noticeable that the soil and climate in the valley of the Connecticut were better adapted to the cultivation of the leaf than in any other section of the colony. Consequently, production tended to concentrate along the Connecticut river, in an area not over ten miles to the east or west of the river and extending from the present Portland to South Hadley and Deerfield, Massa- chusetts, and even farther north.
By 1700, tobacco leaf was being produced in Con- necticut for export. Most of this trade was developed in the present Hartford county, and more particularly in and around Windsor. In 1739 there was a record of the export of some "221 weight" of tobacco to Barbados by Timothy Loomis of Windsor. One of the leading citizens of Windsor, Ebenezer Grant, developed into a consider-
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able trader in tobacco, both for export and domestic sale. In his account book he recorded that he purchased and raised several thousand pounds of tobacco between 1744 and 1767. Some of this leaf was sent to the Simpson brothers of Boston and some to the West Indies. Grant was not the only trader in tobacco for there were recorded shipments from Simsbury in 1750, and from Suffield to England in 1753. A record as early as 1704 showed that tobacco was one of the principal articles of trade between Wethersfield and the West Indies.
The growth and extent of Connecticut exports of tobacco were attested in 1753 by an act of the general assembly "to regulate the Curing and Packing of Tobac- co, and prevent Fraud therein." This act provided for the selection of two or more qualified men, at the annual meetings of the towns in which tobacco was grown for export, to be surveyors and packers of tobacco. Briefly, their duties were to have complete charge of the inspec- tion and packing of tobacco for export; to separate out all "hands" of tobacco which were damaged even in part; and to pack or press no tobacco which was not judged sound, well ripened and cured, and good and merchant- able. The act further provided that each packer must initial each cask packed by himself and also stamp thereon the name of the town in which he lived. It also provided that he was not allowed, under severe penalty, to pack, press, or judge his own tobacco. For these services the packer or surveyor was to receive five pence per hundred weight so packed, and in addition three pence for every mile traveled in the performance of his duties. These fees were to be paid by the owner of the tobacco.
After the middle of the eighteenth century tobacco production in the Connecticut valley dropped off to a considerable extent. There were two main reasons for
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this. The first was the periods of war which cut heavily into export trade. The second was the introduction of cheap plug and pressed tobacco from Virginia. During the years immediately following the Revolution production of tobacco increased until, in 1801, the total crop of the Connecticut valley was twenty thousand pounds-the most ever produced up to that time.
The position of importance occupied by Connecticut in the tobacco trade has been wholly due to the popu- larity of the cigar. Colonel Israel Putnam is generally credited with the introduction of cigars into Connecticut in 1762, upon his return from an expedition against Havana. At that time outcroppings of the new fad ap- peared in other parts of the world, particularly Germany. Once started, the cigar-smoking habit took hold instantly and increased by leaps and bounds. One plausible expla- nation of the popularity of the cigar in New England was its cheapness, for all people could afford to smoke. In Germany, on the other hand, only the moneyed and privileged classes could afford cigars.
During the latter part of the eighteenth century and the early part of the nineteenth, in Connecticut, cigars were wholly a home product. Farmers' wives would fashion the crude cigars and they would be peddled by their husbands throughout the countryside in wagons, in conjunction with other articles of commerce.
Modern cigar-making in Connecticut was born in 1810 when Roswell Viets started a cigar factory at East Windsor and his brother, Samuel, one at Suffield. Samuel Viets hired a Cuban cigar-maker, and twelve women were immediately put to work to "learn the trade." By 183I several other Suffield men had taken up the manu- facture of cigars. During the same period the industry was developed in other parts of the state.
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The earliest brands of commercial cigars were known as Supers, Windsor Particulars, and Long Nines. Other brands were rapidly developed, but the above, especially the Windsor Particulars, remained popular for years. These cigars were crude in comparison to the finished machine product of today. It was sometimes necessary to paste the wrapper to the filler as the system of winding was unknown. This is probably one of the reasons for the name of the immediate predecessor of the brands men- tioned above-the Paste Segars.
The price of medium grades of cigars at that time was approximately the same as is today considered a normal profit to manufacturers. Storekeepers paid between one dollar and two dollars per thousand for cigars, and did the boxing and branding themselves. Today the normal manufacturer's profit for machine-made cigars of Class A or nickel variety averages between seventy-five cents and two dollars per thousand. Some, however, sold at a higher price in the early 1800's. Those known as half Spanish, wholesaling at four dollars per thousand, were retailed at one cent each.
Experiments made by B. P. Barber of East Windsor about 1830 with some Maryland seed produced a beauti- ful, finely textured, broad leaf, which was later developed into Connecticut broadleaf. This type was readily found to attract much attention as a wrapper for cigars, to sub- stitute for the "shoestring" wrapper, a long narrow leaf, formerly grown in the valley. Fortune entered the picture at this point to give further impetus to the rapidly in- creasing popularity of Connecticut wrapper. About 1830 a shipment of tobacco from Warehouse Point to Ger- many was made in larger bundles than usual. During the trip the tobacco "sweated" and when unpacked for use it was found to be a completely changed and vastly better
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leaf. Immediately following this discovery growers in Warehouse Point and Glastonbury commenced to treat their leaf in much the same manner, and the era of specialization in cigar-leaf tobacco in the Connecticut valley began.
III
THE method of sweating in conjunction with packing which was discovered about 1830, together with the increase in popularity of cigars a few years previously, marked the first great change in tobacco production in Connecticut. From that point onward the Connecticut, and also Massachusetts, farmers grew a particular type of leaf, namely, that which was suitable for cigar wrap- pers. Enormous profits were realized during the middle of the nineteenth century and people thought of tobacco as a bonanza. So great were the returns that production spread from Vermont to the mouth of the Connecticut river and even into Rhode Island and Maine. About 1850 tobacco was grown in New Haven county at Hamden but its leaves were so coarse and thick and of such poor quality that its production was soon discontinued. At that time also production was begun along the Housa- tonic river and it still continues to some extent in that valley, particularly in New Milford.
The specialization which was taking place during that period was one which had reference chiefly to the type of leaf grown rather than to the type of farm upon which it was raised. Although there were several exceptionally large tobacco growers in Connecticut at that time, such as the Loomises in Windsor, most of the leaf was grown on small farms and by individuals who also raised other crops. In this respect, the production of outdoor tobacco, as distinguished from shade-grown, is the same today. In
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1925 and 1926 more than fifty per cent of the leaf was grown on farms of less than ten acres. It is a matter of common knowledge at present that the depression in the industry for the fifteen years after 1920 has resulted partly from the ease with which so many small farmers may enter the field at a moment's notice, produce from two to ten acres apiece of outdoor tobacco, and then leave the field when the market becomes glutted.
Methods of growing cigar-leaf have been changed very little from what they were between 1850 and 1860. In general, the first step was the preparation of the seed beds in which the small plants were grown from seed. The beds were almost always inclosed in glass to secure the maximum effect of the sun. When from four to six leaves had developed transplanting was begun. This usually took place in late May or early June, the exact time de- pending upon plant and weather conditions.
Formerly all the transplanting from bed to field was done by hand but for several years now it has been done by machines in Connecticut because of the relatively high labor costs. The transplanting machine used at present is, therefore, a mechanical improvement over the former method of first making the hole with a sharp instrument and then setting the plant in place by hand.
Several times during the early life of the plant the ground was hoed and cultivated to drive out weeds and keep the dirt loose. This work is still done largely by hand for it is relatively difficult to cultivate half-grown plants by machine even though the rows may be three feet apart and the plants separated in the rows by two feet. During the life of the plant, especially in its early stages, it must be constantly watched for insects and cutworms. These were usually removed by hand, but lately some poison preparations have been employed.
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Topping was begun when the blooms first appeared on the top of the plant. This operation, breaking off the top of the plant, is still an integral part of the culture. Its purpose is to allow fuller growth of the upper leaves of the plant. Shortly afterwards appear so-called suckers which must also be broken off by hand. These suckers are merely offshoots appearing in the axils of the leaves.
Both the suckering and topping operations are used to insure a more complete development of the remaining plant. The tops and suckers are too thick and gummy for commercial use and are ordinarily left to rot into the ground.
The method of harvesting sun-grown or outdoor to- bacco in the nineteenth century was the same as now followed. When the plants had become fully grown and ripe they were cut off at the ground and laid in rows to wilt. After the sun had made the leaves pliable and soft (on the stalk the leaves are inclined to be brittle, espe- cially during the early morning hours when the dew is still upon them), they were removed to a special type of shed and tied upon poles and hung up to dry. At the present time the only difference from that method of "stalking" tobacco is that a spearhead is placed on the end of a lath, and the plant is hung upon the lath itself by pushing the spearhead through the thick portion of the stalk. The laths are assembled in the field upon a specially constructed horse or rack and then transported to the shed where they are hung upon beams. The principle of the harvesting and curing remains the same, but there is this difference of method.
Ordinarily the tobacco cures in the course of six to ten weeks. It is then removed from the beams of the shed and the leaves are stripped from the stalk, pressed into bundles, and removed to a warehouse where the sweating
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is begun. Sweating is the fermentation of the tobacco by means of heat and moisture. In this process even tempera- ture, humidity, and good ventilation, as well as careful attendance upon the "bulks" of tobacco in process of fer- mentation, are essential. Carelessness in any of these matters may result in spoiling the tobacco.
The sorting and grading of the leaves is the next step in the preparation for market. This process is the same today as ever except that the trade now demands a finer gradation of the leaves. They are first sorted into sizes according to length and width. Each size is then taken and graded according to color. Poor, broken, and spotted leaves are sorted out by themselves and also graded. Each grade is packed again into bundles and labeled and is then ready for manufacture. When tobacco has been properly cured and sweated it may remain packed for several years before use without danger of spoiling. As a matter of fact, most manufacturers hold tobacco in warehouses for considerable periods before using it.
Methods of marketing tobacco were changed consid- erably between 1830 and 1870. Prior to 1830 peddlers made periodic rounds of taverns to sell cigars to local dealers. This practice soon passed and the local dealers began to make the rounds themselves buying leaf rather than cigars. Growing in importance as they purchased more and more leaf, these local dealers began to sell out- side the valley. The spread of cigar-making to other parts of the United States and the demand for American leaf abroad created tobacco markets in large trading centers such as New York and Philadelphia which replaced those of Hartford and Suffield. With the removal of the market from the valley a new class of jobbers and middlemen came into existence. The high profits of this new class were responsible for the organization of the early co-
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operatives which, although they claimed success through increased prices to the farmers, never had a long exist- ence. Representatives of local and New York jobbers soon invaded the field again.
Official estimates of costs and prices are impossible to obtain but some figures from contemporary sources are available. As tobacco is an outdoor crop and subject to the vagaries of the Connecticut climate, the yield per acre was never constant. Even if the yield per acre was high a rainy season, or a dry summer, or a damaging hail- storm might affect the quality of the crop to such an extent that the ultimate return to the grower would be considerably less than that for a crop grown under more favorable circumstances. During the period from 1830 to 1870 the yield per acre varied from fifteen hundred pounds to twenty-five hundred pounds. A crop yielding two thousand pounds of good leaf per acre was considered gratifying.
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