Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

ENCYCL0PED1 \ I M BI< IGRAPHY
of thousands of dollars were invested, dealing, industry, promptness and tem-
All but one of the growers failed at first perance.
to meel with the expected success. The •" October, [917, the Connecticut Tosuccessful
grower was Mr. Floyd, this
owing to the expert knowledge which he
possessed. The shade growing process
bacco Companj merged with the Ameri-
can Sumatra Tobacco Company. rhe
union of these two lai cerns formed
was a courageous experiment and to day
the Connecticut Tobacco Corporation has
three large plantations located at East
Hartford, East Granby, and Floydville,
the latter town being named in hon<
the pioneer, where arc employed several
hundred persons the entire year. Each
year, before anything can be grown on
the plantations, it is necessary to expend
about ninety thousand dollars for cloth
alone. There are about six hundred and
twenty .teres of tobacco under cloth.
the largest shade growing '
poration in the world. They have offices
at No. [42 Water street, New York
City. Apart from their holdings in the
N irth, they own forty thousand acres of
land in Florida and Georgia, and grow
shade tobacco extensively tlu-n-, besides
several thousand acres in corn, potatoes
and other grain crops. Their entire out-
put of tobacco is shade grown, although
they do an extensive business in toba<
cultivated by other methods. At the time
the shade grown process was adopted by
Mr. Floyd is most enterprising and en- the large growers of Cuba, men trained
ergetic, and in [916, when the labor situ-
ation became a serious one to cope with,
he was the first to introduce the negro
laborer from the South. Excellent quarters
are provided for these laborers and
a regular boarding house equipped with
shower baths, etc., built on the plantation.
Some of the men prefer to and
do sleep in tents in the open. There are
excellent baseball fields available for
them tor recreation purposes after work-
ing hours. The men are well paid and it
is possible for them in the three busy
months of the year to clear about one
hundred dollars over and above their
expenses. The great success of this cor-
poration is largely due to the expert
knowledge of Mr. Floyd, not alone in the
art of raising and caring for the tobacco,
but also to his progressive ideas in the
questions of labor and kindred matters;
in equipping and carrying on an organiation
so that the heads of the firm and
employees work in harmony with each
other. He realizes the truth of the adage
that success lies in the virtue of scpiare
349
under Mr. Floyd's system were sent for
to instruct the Cuban growers the suc-
cessful way to produce tobacco.
LATHROP, Hayden Redfield,
Business Man.
Although the cities dominate the commonwealth
and boast of their social and
business advantages, it is from the wide
spaces of the remote country districts
that the pulsing life of the city is renewed.
It is true that this demand
impoverishes the country communities,
robbing them of some of their most promising
young men, such as are sadly needed
in agriculture. But were it not for the
vital youth thus poured into the centers
of population, the cities would, indeed,
fall into decadence.
In South Coventry the name of La-
throp has long held a prominent place. It
is one of those names which were derived
from the fact of the location of its progenitors.
The original family seat was
in Lowthorpe Wapentake, of Dickering,