Clearing 229 



to a foot in diameter. It is then set fire all 

 along the windward side, and in a dry time 

 with plenty of wind burns through like a 

 charm. But the dry time, the brisk wind, no 

 man can command. Pulling, which is inde- 

 pendent of them, is the tobacco-planter's re- 

 course. For pulling you build a fire upon 

 clean, grubbed ground, as long as the bed is to 

 be, and four feet across. When it has burned 

 the ground hard enough, which is known 

 by the light black soil turning a rich dull-red 

 hue, the burners, armed with long handled 

 hooks, cut from the woods round about, pull 

 the burning logs over upon a fresh clear space, 

 pile more logs, sticks, chips, and leaves upon 

 them there, and let them burn afresh. They 

 are pulled again and again until the bed is 

 finished. A bed ten yards square requires at 

 least ten cords of wood. Sometimes Major 

 Baker burned beds fifty yards square. Nearly 

 always he had plants to give away. 



What virtue lies in the burning, the wisest 

 among the wise men cannot say. But the 

 virtue of it is beyond dispute. In pulling, 

 streaks between fires are often insufficiently 

 burned, and there the tobacco plants grow yel- 

 low and stunted, crisping up at the hint of 

 drought, while those upon the well-burned 

 ground are green and vigorous, the very moral 

 and pattern of healthy growth. Tobacco 



