Decline in tobacco growing continues

1960s – today

Acreage devoted to tobacco production continued to decrease. Farmers continued to turn to growing other crops and selling off land for non-agricultural uses. Cigar-making technology improvements in the 1950s reduced even more the demand for tobacco leaf, and the extraordinary growth of suburbanization in the Hartford region—South Windsor’s population doubled between 1950 and 1960—drove a steady increase in residential land development. In the 1960s, the healthfulness of smoking became a concern, and the already-established trends only continued. Even so, the market for cigars continued, and tobacco growing and processing in South Windsor lives on today.

about 1970

2019

Images: Barney E. Daley Collection, D2001.15.09.44; Google Maps