AHC: Swedish *New England area

Driftless

Donor
But could it compete with southern, more productive, plantations?

Surprisingly, Conneticut grew quite a bit of tobacco till recently.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connecticut_shade_tobacco
Watch the really cheesy 1961 film "Parrish" for an idea of the scope of activity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parrish_(film)

This was the source of the idea:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Sweden
The Swedes sought to expand their influence by creating an agricultural (tobacco) and fur-trading colony to bypass French and English merchants.
 
Surprisingly, Conneticut grew quite a bit of tobacco till recently.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connecticut_shade_tobacco
Watch the really cheesy 1961 film "Parrish" for an idea of the scope of activity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parrish_(film)

This was the source of the idea:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Sweden
Fascinating. I know that the London Ontario area (and west) grew tobacco, so it's clearly possible in more northerly climes, but that industry, AFAIK only existed because of high tariff barriers.

Wow. CT tobacco as a commercial thing. Who'd a thunk it.
 

Driftless

Donor
Fascinating. I know that the London Ontario area (and west) grew tobacco, so it's clearly possible in more northerly climes, but that industry, AFAIK only existed because of high tariff barriers.

Wow. CT tobacco as a commercial thing. Who'd a thunk it.

I know what you mean. A part of where I got off on the tobacco tangent, is that many small farms in my area of Wisconsin had small USDA subsidized tobacco allotments until fairly recently. Typically just a few acres on each farm, that consumed extraordinary amounts of work to produce a yield of high quality tobacco. When the subsidy went away, with the recognition of the myriad health problems of tobacco; most of the farms quit growing tobacco too. Waaaay to much work for little return. Long, long ago I saw some chicken coops where the farmer tacked up whole tobacco leaves on the walls - the nicotine in the leaves killed pest bugs in the coop, or at least that was the theory.

Back on track:): in the 1600's, tobacco farming had to have been viewed as a tremendous cash crop, so with the English colonies in the tobacco heartland of Virginia, North Carolina, and Maryland; Connecticut or New Jersey might have been an attractive site for the Swedes. Pushing tobacco aside, upstate New York or Maine/New Hampshire/Vermont should have worked too. The forest Finns (from OTL New Sweden) would have felt right at home.
 
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