Tobacco

Connecticut River cigar wrappers are something special; they have their own literature.

Anderson, Paul J. "Tobacco Culture in Connecticut." Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (New Haven). Bulletin no, 364 (1934).

Brown, Fred S. "Hartford County Tobacco," in J.H. Trumbull, ed. Memorial History of Hartford County. Boston, 1886. A six-page article describing the tobacco industry as it was about 1880.

Goslee, Henry Stokes. “Glastonbury Sketches.” Connecticut Quarterly  2 (1896) 4:259-67, 333-41. Here are some fascinating photographs of tobacco fields and harvesting scenes about 1896.

Hendrickson, Clarence I· "History of Tobacco Production in New England." Storrs Agricultural Experiment Station. Bulletin #174 (1930).

Jenkins, E.H. "The Growth of Tobacco in Connecticut." Connecticut Magazine 9 (1905) 2:336-48. Excellent illustrated piece by the pioneer historian of Connecticut agriculture.

Kincaid, Randall Rich, Jr. "Economics of Cigar-wrapper Tobacco." Doctoral dissertation, Duke, 1967. This work compares and contrasts the industry as it operates in Connecticut and Florida. Much of the information was garnered from interviews.

Lewis, Thomas R., Jr. "Recent Changes in the Connecticut Valley Tobacco Industry." Journal of Geography 68 (January,1969); reprinted in Lewis' Near the Long Tidal River. Washington: University Press of America, 1981. Lewis discusses the rise of artificial fillers and binders and assesses the threat (as of 1969) of artificial wrappers to the Connecticut Valley shade-grown tobacco industry.

McDonald, Adrian F. The History of Tobacco Production in Connecticut. Tercentenary pamphlet LII (1936). McDonald wrote an M.A. thesis at Wesleyan on the tariff on wrapper tobacco. This is a very useful little pamphlet.

Ramsey Elizabeth. "The History of Tobacco Production in the Connecticut Valley.” Smith College Studies in History 15 (1929-30). A published doctoral dissertation. "To summarize briefly, there are four clear stages in the history of tobacco production in the Valley. From the seventeenth to the second half of the eighteenth century, smoking and chewing tobacco was produced in small quantities for home use: here and there in larger quantities for sale in the hill towns, and in the river towns for export. With the introduction of the cigar, we reach the second stage, when the tobacco grown was manufactured in the homes of the otherwise self-sufficient economy. In the third stage, production was specialized, only wrapper leaf was produced, and the farmer carried the leaf through all the processes before the actual manufacture of the cigars. In this stage, Connecticut leaf was still able to compete with tobacco production elsewhere on equal terms. The development of cigar leaf production in countries with greater natural advantages brought this to an end, and the loss of this branch of agriculture was only prevented by the imposition of a high import tax. Thanks to this tax, and the growing demand for cigars, the tobacco growers of the Valley have been able to extend production successfully for forty years. The protected industry constitutes the fourth stage." (p. 195) A major work. Ramsey concludes with comments about the industry as it faced the twentieth century.