The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-05-08
TARIFFS AND TOBACCO.
OPINIONS OF EXPERTS
H. s. Frye of Windsor on History of Connecticut
 Growers.

H. s. Frye of Windsor, the we'll known tobacco expert, was in the city Saturday and in a mood to talk about that interest bit Mir. Frye said he had watched the tobacco growers through two absolutely senseless pan ics; they went wild about Cuban recip- rocity and about the Philippines Cuba has not hurt them particle and the Philippine excitement was cultivated by the "Sumatra tobacco gang who flooded the state with circulars and alarmed the farmers against their own interests. If the Philippines had fair treatment in their tariff, there would be quite demand there for our Connecti- cut tobacco as there now Is In Porto Rico.
 MT. Frye said that before the sos nnecticut tobacco was on binder basis, selling at an average of cents a pound, and the business was going tn. wrong way, farms were being n1ort- gagged and the farmers growing poorer The Dingley tariff gave 1t great lift. After a time the democrats came into power and we had the Wilson tariff and down went Connecticut tobacco in terests again. The Mckinley tariff brought them up again. In MT. Frye's opinion the real danger to our tobacco farms is to be found not abroad but inside our own tariff walls. It Is the ex- tensive cultivation In Florida under canvas of Sumatra tobacco, done on American soil, but the same interests that cultivate the Sumatra at it's home.
 sumatra tobacco as wrapper has many fine qualities. It Is smooth and of attractive appearance. It began coming in about 1880, At first 1t was not popular It split and got dry, but big manufacturers got hold of it and advertised 1t extensively and made place for It. The New England asso- cistion was formed in 1883 because of Sumatra competition Along about 1885 the growers hereabouts began cul- tlvating Havana seed. Some people say this is what it's name implies and others say 1t is a hybrid Before that time Connecticut tobacco had been al- most altogether of the broad leaf vari- ety The broad leaf is still grown but Havana seed has largely taken it's place. This latter makes as good a wrapper as clear Havana and Is much cheaper. It is the only leaf that blends satisfactorily with fine Havana filters, The Sumatra is not strong enough for practical uses unless it goes as a wrap per with a domestic binder. The Con- necticut broadleaf makes the best bind CT. The Sumatra tobacco grown in Florida has so developed that now it makes 1,OO0O0o,0OO cigars year, The Philippines, so terrible to Connecticut farmers, turn out SO,0O0,OO0. Porto Rico, of which we only hear when it calls for Connecticut wrappers, sends out l 100 ,000 900 a year and counts for noth- ing
 Mr Frye said the real competitor of Connecticut was this Florida growth which threatens to make our tobacco again binder crop. He said that in 1905 the farmers, who had only poor crop, struck a market coalition when they got higher prices. The 1906 cror was far better and they naturally fig- ured that prices would be correspond ingly better. But conditions are diff ferent now and he has doubts as to how prices will turn out in the end The crop grower who waits till the next crop is in the ground sees that he must soon sell and is more or less at the | mercy of the purchaser.