The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-10-02
HARTFORD COUNTY
 TOBACCO CROP IS OVER 10 MILLION
Will Make Wrappers For More Than Three Billion
 Cigars This Year.

At the recent convention of the Ma tional Association of Insurance Agents | in Boston, G. Burgess Fisher of Hart ford, read a paper on Some Features | of Tobacco Insurance" which is of | interest to the hundreds of tobacco | insurance men of the country It | was given in full in the Standard, an insurance publication, and is repro duced here in part. Said MT. Fish CT:
 Imagine, if you please, 5000, 0,000,- 900 high grade cigars. Some smoke! If your mental arithmetic is rapid you will quickly calculate that with every member of the Exchange smoking ten each day there would still be left enough cigars for the annual outing in A. D. 6O2O, and yet these three billion cigars could all be wrapped from the 1916 product of Connecti- cuts shade grown plantations and every wrapper would be free from imperfection and fully equal to the best imported Sumatra. Add to this imposing figure an even greater quan- tity of wrappers of the sun grown
 
 you will come to a realization of the extent to which the cultivation of to- bacco is carried on in a narrowly limited section of that small but en- terprising state, for the industry is chiefly confined to Hartford county, with it's area of 750 square miles. Esti- mates as to the value of the normal crop vary, but it will probably exceed mi duct of 1916 passes to the cigar man. ufacturers, of which over 90 per cent. will represent wrappers, the binders being grown in other less favored To- calities.
 From the haphazard tobacco rais- ing" of ten years ago there has been developed scientific cultivation on an enormous / scale by amply financed corporations, each with their hun dreds of tented acres, scores of sub stantial buildings, tractors and mod ern farming machinery, private water systems, watch towers and countless employees speaking many tongues ,in- cluding the dialect of the southern darkie, who has been imported from the cotton fields due to the acute shortage in "stringing" and and at piece work receive substantial wages. A majority of these employees work in the fields during the summer and are employed in the packing houses in the winter.
 With so great and interesting an industry it is surprising how little the average person knows concerning these plantations.
 While the shade grown produc- CTS have little worry from hail, which is ever, the nightmare of other tobac- co growers, they nevertheless have much to contend with and especially the high winds, for it is not unusual for thousands of dollars of damage to be wrought to the tents during severe blow, although the plants themselves are not often so much damaged. Many inquiries for insur- ance against such damage are receiv- ed each year and a substantial pre- mium would be easily collectible, but so far no insurance company has had the temerity to provide indemnity of this character. The equally serious menace of fire in the tents has for several years past been insured against by some eight or ten compan- ies operating through those of the
 
 ized on tobacco risks and that have to offer a volume of tent insurance suff1- ciently large to permit a reasonable expectation of the operation of the law of average. To these compan- ies the results have been mainly un- satisfactor,, although of late, with an increasing class income, a less dis astrous loss ratio has been experience ed. To the company writing an occa- siona1 line, the insuring of tents and growing tobacco would open the pos sibility of a premium income.
 Very little sun-grown tobacco is now raised by the large corporations and to a considerable extent this branch of the industry still lies with the indi- vidual farmer, but here again the re- cent years have brought a reversal of the former situation, for today the buyer seeks the grower and ready market absorbs at profitable prices all the tobacco of good quality that can be raised in the territory. This then must largely eliminate the moral haz- ard of the individual grower. But the hail cut crop, the frosted crop, and the crop wherein pole sweat" has developed, still loom up at times any many companies yet handle the shed lines cautiously. With all but a very few irresponsible packers the moral hazard has long since ceased to be a cause for concern and the superiority of the modern warehouses is keeping that class on a reasonably profitable basis although the insistent demands for rate and coverage con- sessions bid fair to ultimately reduce the income below the point of under writing safety.
 Most unfortunate of all have been the hail writing companies which started the season with a 50 per cent. advance in rate and a feeling of as- surance that then seemed Justified. But their disastrous experiences of 1915 were soon to be repeated, for on July IS hundreds of acres were whipped and torn by hail during vicious electrical storm, and the overworked adjusters were soon found to be using a new and peculiar pronunciation for losses of this sort. On August 8 less severe, yet serious storm, sought out many of the crops heretofore undamaged. However, a much greater degree of conservation than was shown in 1915 has been em- p1oyed in disposing of this seasons losses and the adjustments have been less nasty and more deliberate, with the result that the insured has re- ceived only what he was entitled to, and the scandalous generosity of 1915