RETURN FROM PITTSBURG 353 



The tobacco, before it is brought to the warehouse, 

 is packed by the planters in hogsheads ; and these, for 

 the more convenient storage on shipboard, must all 

 be of a prescribed breadth and height ; the weight of 

 the tobacco contained must be not less than 950 pounds, 







but more than this as much as they please ; and really 

 as much as 1500 to 1800 pounds are often forced into 

 the hogsheads. The heavier they are so much the 

 better for the merchants, four of these hogsheads, of 

 whatever weight, being reckoned a ship's ton and pay- 

 ing a fixed freight, since the freight on vessels is 

 counted by the space the goods take up and not by their 

 weight. 



The price of tobacco stood at the time at 29-30-32 

 shillings Pensylv. Current the hundredweight ; during 

 the war it was 35 shillings, or a guinea, and more ; 

 but at the last, when export was extremely difficult, 

 hardly 18-20 shillings. The freight for a ship's ton, 

 or 4 hogsheads, is now 7 Pd. sterling to England, or 

 35 shillings the hogshead. It was estimated that 

 shortly before the war Maryland exported about 70,000 

 and Virginia about 90,000 hogsheads of tobacco ; and 

 was each rated in the average at only 10 Pd. sterling, 

 it is a very considerable amount which these colonies 

 gained yearly by this plant alone. 



The planting of tobacco is a special branch of agri- 

 culture, requiring much trouble and attention, and in 

 many ways exposed to failure. There are but few 

 planters hereabouts who make more than 15 hogsheads 

 in a year; most of them not over 5-10. An acre of 

 land, if it is right good, produces not much over a 

 hogshead. In Maryland there is far less tobacco 

 raised than formerly ; particularly because of the dis- 

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