Tobacco firms to buy less leaf this year

(Times-Dispatch) Cigarette-makers are cutting back on the amount of leaf they'll buy this year, early reports from the latest annual round of grower contract negotiations show.
Though the companies, including Henrico County-based Altria Group Inc., won't give details, they confirm that they will buy less because of a continuing slide in cigarette sales. Continued

Image: Sweet Violet cigarettes. Globe Tobacco Co., 1886 (Library of Congress).