Tobacco has been a part of Enfield agriculture almost since the town was settled. It was apparently considered an important crop here even during the eighteenth century. Each year at the town meetings a Packer of Tobacco was chosen as a result of an attempt by the General Assembly to prevent fraud and dishonest practices by regulating the curing and packing of tobacco. For the most part, however, the acreage grown by individual farmers was quite small, two acres being considered a large crop until the invention of the tobacco setter early in the 1900s.
The first tobacco raised by the settlers was the same as that raised by the Indians. This variety, quite small with a bitter taste, was later replaced by other improved strains from the West Indies. In the acute economic readjustment following the Civil War farmers everywhere came out as losers, ours being no exception. From the 1870s to 1900 were heartbreaking years. Beaten by Western competition for their products, hampered by high taxes, and finally in the depression years of the 1890s beset by ruinous prices for their products, it is no wonder that agriculture began its slow decline during the period. Fortunately, for some Enfield farmers, at least, the power mills nearby and other rising industries in the town provided employment with which to supplement their meager income.
Though dairy farming had taken over where beef raising had left off and our farms had become more specialized, there was a need for a good cash crop. Tobacco began to supply that need. In 1890 a duty of two dollars per pound imposed by the government on the imported Sumatra wrappers which were competing seriously with our product had the effect of boosting production and increased the profit potential of the crop. Add to this the fact that the tobacco setter came into use about 1900, making it possible to plant many more acres than could be planted by hand. So it was no wonder that Enfield experienced such a boom in tobacco growing. From 1900 to 1921 the acres of tobacco grown in Enfield increased tremendously - peaking at 1,500 acres on 200 farms, and many tobacco barns or "sheds" were built. Tobacco shed "raisings", as they were called, became quite common and were quite a social event, looked forward to by young and old alike. They offered men the chance to show off their strength, the women an opportunity to advertise what good cooks they were, and for the kids it was an exciting occasion - with plenty of good things to eat. The farmer having the raising did all the preliminary work, or had it done. The ground was graded, the piers poured, the frame was spiked together in sections or "bents", and laid horizontally in readiness to be raised into position, Plates, rafters, girths, and braces were made ready and stacked nearby to be handy when needed. When everything was arranged the day was set, the neighbors called, the farmer's wife with her helpers, usually some of the neighbors' wives, prepared the food - cakes, doughnuts, pies, sweets of all kinds, and the drinks - cases of soda for some, beer for others, and even some "hard stuff".
On the day of the raising, neighbors and friends converged on the site from all directions and, after much friendly banter and kidding, the men gathered around the frame of the new shed. Each man armed himself with a pike pole, usually supplied by the carpenter, and the gang got imposition to raise the first section of the frame. The sharpened ends of the pikes bit into the frame members and at the command of "heave" everyone lifted and the heavy frame section began to rise into place. After many "heaves" the section was finally lifted into a vertical position and braced in place. The whole process was then repeated with section after section until the whole frame was up, connected by the plates, and braced. Next the rafters were put on and at that point the raising was over with the carpenter left to finish the shed.
Raisings could be dangerous. The frame could and sometimes did slip, or a sudden gust of wind could topple it before it was finally secured, so it was mighty important that every man do his job, and do it well. Sometimes there were hitches - as on one occasion when the carpenter had mad a mistake in the height of a concrete pier, and the frame did not fit on it. One of the men promptly solved the problem by grabbing an axe that was handy and chopping off the top of the pier - a rather back door approach. Another time one of the raisers, who had been imbibing a little too freely before the raising, decided to dance a jig on the plate of the new barn, a slender beam at least sixteen feet from the ground and only eight inches wide. Luckily, he didn't fall, and of course he provided great entertainment for the crowd which yelled its encouragement. When each raising was completed everyone headed for the refreshments, which in amazing short time disappeared, but still not before any exciting moments of the event had been relived and the status of the crops, the weather, or the chances of the next political candidate had been discussed. Finally, one by one the neighbors left for their own farms. This event was repeated many times during the tobacco boom years in Enfield. No one section of the town has a monopoly of the type of soil which will grow tobacco well, so its production was spread pretty much over the whole area.
Between 1900 and 1910 there was a new development in the tobacco industry here. Experiments in Windsor had proven that it was possible to grow Cuban tobacco in Connecticut by reproducing the tropical climate of Cuba and Sumatra artificially. This was done by enclosing the tobacco field in a "tent" of very loosely woven cloth. The resulting tobacco had a thinner leaf which made superior wrappers for cigars and could compete with the Cuban tobacco which had previously been imported. Several of these "shade grown" plantations were established in Enfield soon after 1910, and have been successful enough to survive to the present time. L.B. Haas Co. began its operation in 1911 on Maple Street in Hazardville (just around the corner from where I grew up). I.H. Woodworth wet up on the John McNamarra farm on Raffia Road and expanded later to land on Pound Road. William and Henry Hunting established shade tobacco production in 1920 in the East Wallop section of town and were later bought out by the present owner, the Consolidated Tobacco Corporation. Other growers from out of town have also rented land in Enfield to raise shade grown tobacco from time to time.
Since Enfield farmers began to specialize in tobacco, growers have experienced wide fluctuation in their fortunes. Tobacco is a high cost, high risk crop , very vulnerable to the vagaries of the weather, easily damaged by wind or frost or ruined in a few minutes by a summer hailstorm. Field diseases can lower the quality of the crop or ruin it altogether. No one who has raised tobacco here will soon forget the devastating effect of the "Wildfire" disease. Fortunately that blight has been controlled, but there are others like the "Blue Mould", which gave the shade growers so much trouble. More recently another problem called "Fleck" has appeared as a result of the pollution of the atmosphere. The crop is not even safe after it is harvested and in the shed, for then it is subject to the rotting and molding known as "pole sweat" which can cause much damage, particularly in damp, muggy weather. There have also been years when hail practically wiped out the crop in Enfield, but usually the damage is more spotty. In 1938 a hurricane which struck while tobacco was curing in the sheds demolished many barns and damaged others as well as much tobacco. Many of these sheds were never rebuilt - in fact it has been reported that at least 170 tobacco sheds were taken off the assessor's list in that one year. Tobacco acreage here peaked around 1921 and remained high until the stock market crash in 1929. In 1931 with the depression in full swing the price of broadleaf binder tobacco dropped to fourteen cents per pound, about half of what it had brought the previous year. In 1932 it hit a low of twelve cents. The discouraged growers cut back their production as the government came in with acreage controls. Paid by the government if they did not grow tobacco over their allotments, most growers signed up for the program. As a result, production was brought more in line with demand. Prices began to improve slowly but the tobacco boom was over for Enfield and acreage has remained low ever since.
In 1952 another development further depressed demand for broadleaf tobacco of the type being grown in Enfield. This was introduction of a new process for making a "manufactured leaf" to be used for cigar binders (the layer just under the wrapper): the whole tobacco leaf grown is ground up, stems and all, with other scrap tobacco, and rolled out into a paper-like sheet for use by the cigar makers. At first it was thought (hopefully, by the growers) that this innovation would not be accepted by the cigar makers - and particularly by the smoking public. Unhappily for the growers, however, it was accepted eagerly by the cigar maker, and because of its cheapness had a great effect on the demand for natural binders. Enfield and all other growers of broadleaf tobacco in the Connecticut Valley have been adversely affected by this development.
Tobacco growing still depends for the most part on hand labor. While there have been many attempts to mechanize at least a part of the process, most of these have been unsuccessful. The invention of the tobacco setter was an exception. It did speed planting tremendously. There are a few farmers living today who can remember what a slow and laborious job it was when done by hand. First the readied ground had to be marked out and hilled with a horse-drawn hiller. The locations of the plants in the row were then marked with a hand-pushed device resembling a wheel, with projections on the rim which struck into the ground and left an impression wher4e each plant was to be placed. The planting team, one man with a basket of plants, the other with a bucket of water and a ladle just large enough to contain the water needed for one plant, started down the row. One man planted while the other man watered, and so it went till the job was done - back breaking work to say the least. There have been some improvements in the harvesting process too, although much hand labor is still used. Most of the outdoor tobacco raised here today is placed on hook lath before being hung in the sheds; however, it was not always so for back in 1890 or thereabouts it was done a little differently. First the plants were cut down and wilted well, then loaded into carts and taken to the shed. The carts were driven into the shed and the plants were tied directly to the poles one at a time by the "hanger", a man who took a string and as each plant came to him placed the butt of the plant against the pole, took a turn around it with the string, then crossed the string to the other side of the pole ready for the next plant, which was placed diagonally opposite the first. While this could be done much faster that it could be described, it was still slower than later methods of "spearing" or "hooking". One method, which was never used to any great extent, was called "spearing the ground", so-called because the spearer thrust one end of the lath into the ground until it supported itself, placed the spear on top, picked up the plant from the ground and speared it onto the lath, continuing until the lath was full. It was a dangerous method (you could get the spear in the neck), hard on the tobacco too, but one man could do it - probably why it was used. Although most attempts to mechanize tobacco growing have failed, the shade tobacco growers do have a machine to sew the leaves in the sheds. Broadleaf growers also have used a machine to pull the plants off the spear laths; however, most growers now use hook lath so these machines are used very little and more.
Although reduced demand and overproduction have been the most compelling factors in the reduction of tobacco acreage in Enfield, there ate other reasons for the decline. After World War I the increase in cigarette smoking prompted a corresponding decrease in the demand for cigars. As the pace of American life quickened there seemed to be less time for leisurely cigar smoking, while a quick "drag" on a cigarette could be managed more easily. more women also began to smoke, and of course they preferred the cigarette as a more feminine practice. As cigarettes and cigars you lose entirely different types of tobacco there was less demand for the pipe smoking type of tobacco growing in Enfield. Later, with the start-up hostilities in World War II, came a tremendous increase in the aircraft and other defense industries close by. The relatively high wages paid by these new industries competed directly with farm labor, so that some small growers gave up tobacco internally to work in the shops or perhaps continued to grow a small amount, relying internally on family labor to care for the crop.
The latest blow to tobacco growers in Enfield, as elsewhere, has been the evidence that smokers are more likely to suffer from one cancer than people who do not smoke. The Surgeons Generals warning, "Smoking may be injurious to your health", required on packages of cigarettes has not affected cigar smoking except by inference, but the fact remains that many people have given up smoking altogether. Tobacco production in Enfield has remained fairly stable for the last few years at about 300 acres, all of it under federal acreage control.
Although the first cigar factories were established in East Windsor and Suffield about 1810, to Enfield goes the distinction of having the last of the old time cigar makers in New England. At this date John M. Wardstill plies his craft at his little shop and Thompsonville, turning out about 300 stogies a day. Using tools, many of which are 100 years old, he bunches, molds, presses, books, and wraps-producing cigars in the first tobacco, most of it Connecticut grown, without using additives or "homogenized" leaf. He is the last of a class of skilled artisans. When he dies were quits, the process of cigar making around here will have been just about completely mechanized. As he says, "There's no use in any young feller to learn this up against machines."