415 



back, and observe the difference in the cal- 

 culation made on my farm at Orange-hill, 

 in the allowance of myself, two sons, and 

 wife, doing our own work, and not hiring 

 for it. It is a plain demonstration betwixt 

 the working farmer and the man of plea- 

 sure, and there is no horse charged. The 

 overseer costs the planter two hundred 

 pounds per year ; and the tobacco bears the 

 blame, in part, for its not being profitable. 

 Asto spoiling the land, it is the intended use 

 of the greatest part of the land in America ; 

 tobacco first for two or three years, and 

 either wheat or rye and Indian corn after- 

 wards. Tobacco, at fifty pounds an acre ; 

 for twenty acres gives one thousand 

 pounds. These employ seven or eight 

 negro men or women. It is said to 

 be a year's work to go through the 

 process : so it is : the preparing the land 

 in March and April ; planting in May ; 

 hoeing and overlooking in June, July, Au- 

 gust, and September ; cutting and hous- 

 ing in October ; the other months in moist 

 weather to be pulling the leaves of the to- 



