" TOBACCO VALLEY " SHADE GROWN TOBACCO & CIGARETTES PROMO FILM CONNECTICUT RIVER VALLEY XD13304

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This color educational film is about raising tobacco crops in the Connecticut River Valley. This film was made circa the 1950s based on research.
Opening credits: The Shade Tobacco Agricultural Association presents TOBACCO VALLEY, the story of Shade Grown Tobacco as told by Lowell Thomas (:08-:28). Connecticut River Valley. A tractor goes down a paved road between tobacco crops. A worker moves around. Men in the tobacco crop field. A man breaks down tobacco. A cigar on an ash tray (:29-1:33). Animated map of Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont. Land gets plowed. Connecticut River Valley is the Tobacco valley. Clouds in the sky. Fall in New England. Aerial valley shot. People tent the tobacco in the valley. Men plow the tobacco field and then pick the leaves. Connecticut capitol building in Hartford, CT Factory smoke stacks. Train on the rails. Men plow the fields. Women pick leaves. Horses pull a wagon. Men unload the wagon. A New England home. Men in the tobacco field. A family roam the tobacco crops (1:34-4:01). Housing quarters for the workers. First sign of spring on the trees. Flowers in the grass, trees bloom in the valley. Small water fall as leaves run down it. Workers set up the framework for the cloth tents. Horses plow the ground. A tractor plows deep into the soil. Rotors rip the soil. CT Agriculture Station in Windsor, CT. Scientists do experiments (4:02-7:14). Seed for tobacco plants are weighed. Then poured into a tiny envelope. Worker in the tobacco field. Hand holds the seeds. A woman mixes seeds with coconut fiber and then a man pours water into it. He puts it into a jar. Workers put the cloth tents onto a wagon and horses pull it into the fields. The tents are hung in the field. Men hang the tents
(7:15-10:15). Aerial shot of the tented field. Lush green trees. Workers pour fertilizer and plow the field, dropping i into the soil. The jar is poured into a larger tube and mixed by a worker. Frames are placed over the tobacco and the crop is watered. Crops start to grow green. Men water. Tents are up, sun is shining. Women start to pull leaves. Giant barrels of water are poured. Planting machines grow slowly across the fields. How the tobacco leaves are planted is shown (10:16-13:31). Growing season goes on as more leaves are placed in the soil. More fertilizers are applied. Horses plow. A hoe rakes the soil. Clouds move in, dark clouds. A woman removes clothes from the line. Lightning. Newspaper speaks of storm damage the next day, tents are ripped. Farmers start all over again, fix the tents. Women dip their feet in the water on the CT River. Camp for the women. Women row and play. Some women play at the piano. Women eat at their picnic tables. Sunday morning at Simsbury Methodist Episcopal Church in Simsbury, CT. Women attend Sunday service at church. Women stand in church and prepare to sing. Stained glass windows at the Church (13:32-17:22). A worker works in the crop on a sunny day. Fertilizer is put down. A small plane goes by dusting the crops. Workers climb onto a truck. Women get onto a school bus. Men go over to the tents and start to pick the leaves. Men sit and pick. Men walk and pick through the crop. Horse and wagon in the distance. Horse pulls up a wagon (17:22-20:07). Cases of the crop. A tractor drives by. Women place the giant leaves in piles. Women sew the leaves together. Bars of the leaves sewn together are hung in the rafters of the shed. Women and men drink. Charcoal fires are lit to dry the moisture from the leaves inside the shed (20:08-22:41). Sheds are made sure to have proper ventilation. Plowing goes on. Tents come down. The leaves are taken down from the she'd rafters, dried out. Leaves are placed into a warehouse. Piles weigh more than a ton. All leaves are properly fermented. Conditioning room restores moisture to the leaves. Leaves are sorted by women and bound together (22:42-25:31). Leaves are put together in bales. A worker reviews them with a clipboard. A man makes a cigar. A cigar is made in a machine. Boxes of tobacco are shown. Fall in New England in CT. Cars drive by. Foliage in the trees. A man walks towards the trees. Sunset as a man walks near it (25:32-28:04). No end credits.
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit www.PeriscopeFilm.com

[@ProfessorPille]

I live here and there's still an old tobacco barn across the street, home to swallows. Nothing much has changed other than the crops. I'm glad of that.

[@warped-sliderule]

In '70 '71 at 14 and 15 years old worked during the summa for Consolidated Cigar Corporation under those tents and in the drying sheds, in Sunderland, South Hadley Mass. Still got the pay stubs. Good memories, fun times, thanks for the video...

[@daviddonaghy7568]

I spent my summers picking tobacco in North Carolina. I love the smell of tobacco as long as it's not burning.

[@ericcorse]

I used to live in Durham and it smelled wonderful when L&M and American were still in business.

[@billykuan]

I bought seed from England that were Cuban cigar wrap leaves. I live in the Northwest and they did well in my greenhouse. I dried them slowly and the leaves were smooth and amazing.

[@waynejohnson1304]

My great grandfather, John Lathrop, owned tobacco fields on Ellington Road in South Windsor. He died a very wealthy man. His daughter, Marian Lathrop, was my grandmother.

[@larryjohnston929]

I’m from West Virginia. I spent 2 summers at East Windsor Boys camp. I was 14 my first year. Coming from the hills of home to Connecticut was a culture shock for sure. But it was a time of my life that I will never forget. I met people from all over the world. I guess I grew up a lot. It had a huge impact. I have often wondered if the camp is still standing. I would like to go back and see it all again. Great memories.

[@scratchdog2216]

Memories. Grew up in Windsor, CT. Shade and broadleaf were our summer jobs. Day Hill Rd. was all fields then.

[@BELCAN57]

Not any more, Scratch. Many businesses built there.

[@dwightl5863]

How much did you get paid? Appears room and board were provided with no additional cost?

[@donfahrbach6912]

@@dwightl5863 $4.25 an hour in 1980, but by then there were no dorms, mostly local kids picked up by buses. Most jobs were piece work.

[@jeffreywescott7942]

@@dwightl5863 $1.35/hr. This was my first job, and I still remember the shock of realizing how much the feds wanted me to "contribute" in taxes!!

[@kristystauffer2873]

Those baby buds look like clovers 🍀. Wow . Now the adult plants are taller. Pretty dam cool.

[@donnapelletier9722]

I sewed tobacco for 4 years at Mulnite Farms in East Windsor, CT as did many of my school friends. Hard work but fun and the money wasn't bad.

[@scratchdog2216]

Born in '65. Tobacco was pretty much your summer job. Day Hill Rd. was mostly fields back then.

[@brianburns7211]

I grew up just outside the Connecticut River Valley. They used to hire kids on summer vacation to work the fields. The farms even had busses to pick up the kids.

[@nessunodorme3888]

Like corn detassling maybe? Backbreaking jobs at exceptionally low agricultural wages they recruit junior high schoolers for?

[@daveburgie6099]

You have no idea how hard us local guys tried dating the girls from FL. We got chased off so many times.

[@mjc11a]

God Bless you for trying!

[@michaelbaumgardner2530]

That's some labor intensive tobacco and I grew up in the burly belt,it's about the same without the tents.I was glad when burly went out.

[@nessunodorme3888]

It reminds me of those backbreaking corn detassling jobs they used to recruit us for in junior high school.

[@kristystauffer2873]

That guy on his horse plow needs to hold on to it. He was swaying with his plow. He will have zig zag lines. Lol 😆

[@Vortigan07]

Wonderful to watch! I wonder how many boxes of those now vintage cigars are still out there somewhere??

[@jayytee8062]

Is this the same place they grow ToMacco?

[@bobdelisle8903]

I remember seeing the covered fields and tobacco sheds when I was a young boy driving through with my parents. That would have been in the 60s. In the early 70s I drove through by myself. When did tobacco stop being grown in Conn.?

[@BELCAN57]

It's still grown. Not as much as when I was a kid back in the sixties, but the region is still home to large fields of shade tobacco. I don't indulge myself, but there are some who still swear by Connecticut and Massachusetts grown shade tobacco wrapper as being the very best.

[@tarstarkusz]

It is still being grown in CT, just not as much. It went from 20k acres to 2k acres.

[@ABMP4D3]

If you go up Rt. 20 heading towards Bradley, O.J. Thrall is tearing down a good portion of the tobacco barns off of Kennedy Rd, it has been dwindling for the past 30 years.

[@BELCAN57]

@@ABMP4D3 I go through there quite a bit and I can attest to that fact. I expect to see houses or businesses going up there soon. Wish they had dismantled those barns, I'll bet that there's some nice wood that's just been bulldozed.

[@brikkijim]

@@BELCAN57 True. Whately and Hatfield still have fields. I smoke cigars and Conn. wrappers add a nice flavor. I believe it's the limestone in the river that adds a nice touch to the nearby soil.

[@harrybriscoe7948]

how many farms do you think were subdivided ?

[@dubdaze68]

Okay. Had no knowledge of ANY of this.

[@moremoneyfordreadnoughts1100]

We called it cheesecloth. I think German POWs (Afrika Korps) were allowed to work the farms during the war.

[@nessunodorme3888]

Can anybody describe the cloth they used to cover the fields -- like how tight was the weave, like a light table cloth, curtain, cheese cloth. Could you have used it for clothing or was it too thin?

[@jeffreywescott7942]

I worked tobacco as a kid in the '70's. The tents were more like heavy gauze bandaging. One thing this film didn't talk about was what it was like to work UNDER those tents! Easily 20-30 degrees hotter and a whole lot more humid. I remember a kid fainting: he was hauled out by his feet, set under a tree and given water, and then right back to work!

[@wind-solar]

Lowell Thomas. As easy to listen to as Ernie Harwell. Extra DDT and Chlordane please, sure wouldn't want to smoke a dead bug in my choli.

[@bitsnpieces11]

Made in the 1950s, I thought I saw surplus WWII buildings in the show. The U. of F. used them from Fort Blanding for married student housing until about the '70s.

[@manhoot]

I love tobacco. Still smoke it to this day

[@philipcox5041]

Tobacco is a wonderful thing

[@johnquest3102]

Did they take down all the poles each winter?

[@BELCAN57]

Not usually, the repair fallen or damaged poles yearly and the put away the cloth covering to keep it from being damaged.

[@johnquest3102]

Are we passed the heyday of cigar smoking?

[@DEATHTOTHESHITTERS]

$40 for 25 cigarettes in Australia.

[@samgangi5990]

Anyone know the song title at 15:46? I've heard it before but cant recall the title. I keep replaying that part just to hear it, the beautiful girls are just a bonus. Just wish I could hear it without that blasted announcer over it.

[@bwayne40004]

I knew about wrapper tobacco but we grew Kentucky burley which is raised differently in some aspects. There is a movie called "Parrish" starring Dean Jagger which is melodramatic but plots around Connecticut tobacco growing. I watched some of it on Turner Classic Movies a few months back. This was much more interesting.

[@nessunodorme3888]

I'm pretty sure I saw that movie on TV when I was a kid like almost 50 years ago (!). It featured that planting machine and the field hands feeding it seedlings, singing, "Little ol' wheel go 'round and round "Puttin' tobacco in the ground ..." It made an impression on me, I guess.

[@jeffreywescott7942]

Did anyone here work on Lorenzo Lamson's tobacco farm, ca. 1973-76? I think his was in Granby, Conn.

[@gailmaterialsquotedepartme8710]

My uncle Henry Poleck had a farm in Enfield Ct and raised 100 acres. My grandfather Joseph Falkowski also raised tobacco on his farm in Suffield Ct. I'm sure they knew each other. I worked summers from grade school through college harvesting broadleaf

[@smadaf]

Thanks, tobacco industry, for addicting so many members of my family to a drug that killed them.

[@notyetsilenced9746]

The remaining tobacco barns along Route 20 in Windsor, CT are now being destroyed, one-by one. One day they are standing. The next day, a pile of rubble. So sad!

[@SimirJohnson]

Must of the property in the Hartford, CT area is now housing and solar farms. Some is open space where the soil still needs to be decontaminated due to years of poisonous fertilizers that were used. At night, we used to climb on top of the fabric and jump

[@BrownEyePinch]

Smoke em if you got em

[@kristystauffer2873]

Loading the extra the men up like cattle in that truck. One by one in a single file line. Hold on there's no seat belts you may fly off at high speeds.

[@kenmore01]

What?? Americans doing the work Americans won't do?? That's crazy talk!

[@samhouston1673]

Thanks all of you tobacco farmers for making my life a living Hell.

[@mikecastellon4545]

We make our own reality unless u are a democrat

[@norcanexs.g.llc.4625]

All that effort just so people can stunt their health with a bad habit

[@brikkijim]

Thank the Good Lord I'm in the USA and have the freedom of choice. I smoke cigars. I eat meat, veggies, drink milk, work hard and love my freedom. Did I mention I like the freedom to smoke cigars when I want. Many bad habits out there to stunt your growth or even enlarge your growth. Moderation in everything is the way to go. Not too much booze, not too much fast food or restaurant food.

[@jacksons1010]

james morgan Most of the world has freedom of choice, not just the USA. In fact most of world is allowed to smoke fine Cuban cigars...only Americans are denied that freedom. Weird thing that we’re not as free as we like to think we are, and we don’t even see it.

[@Slickgoodlin]

I grew up with smokers, smoking fine tobacco is really enjoyable, except for sitting on the edge of the bed every morning, hacking up gobs of brown lung butter into a tissue.

[@internetguy1260]

@@Slickgoodlin you don't inhale cigars

[@Slickgoodlin]

@@internetguy1260 , point taken and I do understand the general concept.

[@glennledrew8347]

A lot of effort to support a filthy habit, made more profitable by the cheap teen labour. Wouldn't be so bad if the stench could be confined to just the smoker. I grew up through the 60s and 70s, when it seemed most anyone over 14 smoked. Living through my childhood enveloped in the haze of other people's addiction has resulted in a hatred of tobacco rivaling the searing heat of a supernova. It took my mom, at age 67, via COPD.

[@davidwatson8118]

Tobacco company propoganda , 😞

[@neilpuckett359]

Boo-hoo