The Republican journal., 1872-08-08
Farm, Garden, and Household.
Tobacco Growing in the Connecticut
Valley.

The advent of the tobacco plant has
wrought revolution in the habits and GUS
toms OF the farming community of the
Connecticut Valley. Instead of the bare
support which our best farms Welded their
owners before It's Introduction, we find in
many cases hundreds, and even thousands
OF dollars cleared yearly: instead of the
ancient farm houses, which presented their
Weatherbeaten fronts to the passers-by, fit
emblemS Of the toll and privations of their
owners, we find ample and elegant homes
and the farmers wife and daughter in the
en- joyment of all the comforts and many
OF the luNuries of life, which We're formerly
associated only with the successful trades
man or wealthy manufacturer. There is
still plenty Of hard, unremittiug work. but
the rewards are so much greater that the
work is more cordially accepted; and the
Young men are less anxious to seek their
fortunes IN distant and newer parts of the
country.
The tobacco belt, if we may so term the
section occupied in its cultivation, extends
from CharleStoWn. n. H., on the north, far
down into the nutmeg state. The cultiva-
tion OF the weed in Connecticut dates back
forty years or more, although 1t has as
Numed its present proportions at Il much
later date. Growers over the line almost
always colnnlahu mucH bettef prices tor
thelr tobacco than their Massachusetts
neighbors. With heir longer experience
they find that it pays to use much greater
care in sorting; they indulge lightly in
commercial fertilizers, and content them
SELVES with only SO large an acreage as
they are able to tertiize with stable manure
TIE town of Suffeld, which ranks high
amOu9 its neighbOrs, is a case in point. In
niue of the eleven districts, careful can
NasS SHOWS Ior lH'l' ffo acres raised by
7ut growers, Il product OF S96,393 pounds,
"llch SOLD lot S2Sb,l3l,
NOT many OF the llampden county towns
are largely interested in tobacco culture,
tA"ush most OF them dabble IN it more or
IcSs. 0PrlhSneld mas none to speak OF, and
NhicoPet very htlle' IL Is more OF 4 buSl-
less IN west Springfield, where about 100
acres were raised last year. Russell boasts
- nf 90 acres, ana the other back towns
small amounts. Wes'held Is, however, the
great tobacco centre OF lfampden county,
tohohlhs both growing and manufacturing
y" great extent:
some OF the Weslheld growers are max
ing an experiment thlS year, which, II it
IfallAes All that iS expected from II, cannot
IAN 10 prove "l SreaV importance To grow
elS 3rherally. we refer TO the raising OF
Inc plant from The Spanish seed, an enter
w., 81. ,o'' ~ a' 1,i.ti VI
NV Se"iS 49, , ln'1 I'l'i't Il SilliIle' 'ntii
. ,i'II 49, ',,I '4"S tt nein-
,,l, ~ incb,s o,arf ma a(s ra( pan '.;'', "a
"hly Ia IhFheS apart ne average yield
per acre '7 rom 1900 TO $500 pounds.
ionacco culture IN Massachusetts prop
cry dates pach only 10 1870 Not but that
the tobacco weed was known here at "A
Senator Isaac q Rates of No,,hno,,to,, n,','r,'
rev small nnon,ites far somn ,aars hn far
fb.l tip, .nd C.,,,ro, Ann, of uI,.Il
moved from EnGalJ Cam to thot
lutrodnrad i,u r1ltnra ti,ara ahe"t Nv -
p, small s,.aIa ,yhiIo - Fan, w