52 INCREASE OF TOBACCO GROWING. 



it, or cut off the ground leaves, weed it, hill it ; and when 

 ripe, they cut it down about six or eight leaves on a stalk, 

 which they carry into airy tobacco houses, after it is withered 

 a little in the sun, there it is hung to dry on sticks, as paper 

 at the paper-mills ; when it is in proper case, (as they call it) 

 and the air neither too moist, nor too dry, they strike it, or 

 take it down, then cover it up in bulk, or a great heap, where 

 it lies till they have leisure or occasion to strip it (that is pull 

 the leaves from the stalk) or stem it (that is to take out the 

 great fibres) and tie it up in hands, or streight lay it ; and so 

 by degrees prize or press it with proper engines into great 

 Hogsheads, containing from about six to eleven hundred 

 pounds ; four of which Hogsheads make a tun by dimention, 

 not by weight ; then it is ready for sale or shipping. 



There are two sorts of tobacco, viz., Oroonoko the stronger, 

 and sweet-scented the milder ; the first with a sharper leaf 

 like a Fox's ear, and the other rounder and with finer fibres : 

 But each of these are varied into several sorts, much as 

 Apples- and Pears are; and I have been informed by the 

 Indian traders, that the Inland Indians have sorts of tobacco 

 much differing from any planted or used by the Europeans. 

 The Indian Corn is planted in hills and weeded much as 

 tobacco. This grain is of great increase and most general 

 use; for with this is made good bread, cakes, mush, and 

 hommony for the negroes, which with good pork and potatoes 

 (red and white, very nice and different from ours) with other 

 roots and pulse, are their general food." 



The cultivation of tobacco increased with the growth of 

 the colony and the increase of price which at this time was 

 sufficient to induce most of the planters to neglect the cul- 

 ture of Corn and Wheat, devoting their time to growing 

 their "darling tobacco." The first thirty years after the 

 colonization of Virginia by the English, the colony made but 

 little progress owing in part to private factions and Indian 

 wars. The horrid massacres by the Indians threatened the 

 extermination of the colony, and for a time the plantations 

 were neglected and even tobacco became more of an article 

 of import than of export, which is substantiated by an early 

 writer of the colony who says: "A vast quantity of 

 tobacco is consumed in the country in smoking, chewing, and 

 snuff." Frequent complaints were made by the colony of 

 want of strength and danger of imminent famine, owing in 



