446 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



hung up, as soon as it is cut and wilted, where it hangs 

 to dry, and is then "fired." 



The great pest in the cultivation of this crop, are the 

 worms that prey upon the leaves, and unless destroyed, 

 will destroy the crop. The eggs are deposited by a miller 

 almost as large as the humming bird, and very much re- 

 sembling it in movements, upon the upper and under 

 side of the tobacco leaves, from the time it is about half 

 grown till it matures. These hatch and grow "powerful 

 quick," and eat "powerfully," and have all to be picked 

 off by hand; though some have trained turkeys to per- 

 form a part of the work. In cutting up the crop, the 

 laborer seizes the stalk with one hand, and splits the stalk 

 nearly to the ground with a stout butcher knife, then cuts 

 it off and throws it in piles to wilt, which it will do in a 

 few hours, when it is hauled to the house and hung across 

 sticks in the upper tier and so down till the beams are 

 full; when it is sufficiently dry, large fires are built on 

 the ground so as to give as much heat as possible with 

 little blaze or smoke. This is a dangerous operation and 

 accidents often happen. After it is thus cured, it hangs 

 till a wet spell moistens it so that it can be handled to 

 strip, or if the room is wanted, it is taken down and 

 bulked away to make room for the next cutting. The 

 crop avarages about 800 lbs. to the acre, worth 2i/ 2 to 

 3c, and 2 to 3 acres to a hand. As a matter of course 

 when tobacco is the general crop, the land is rich; yet 

 generally speaking the people do not appear so in this 

 part of the country. 



Although here is nothing but corn and fodder, yet stock 

 looks better than in Missouri. Pretty good oxen with 

 miserable yokes and bows, are worked upon more miser- 

 able carts In fact all the farming implements are of 

 the roughest kind — even brooms, that indispensible arti- 

 cle with a yankee housekeeper, are not to be found, un- 

 less you are pleased to denominate that miserable little 

 switch of broom straw with which you see a negro pok- 

 ing about the floor as though looking for dropped pins 



