70 VIRGINIA LANDS. 



manner truly exemplary, and productive of public good." 



Fairholt says of the same subject : 



" It was sometimes the custom with planters to reset the 

 suckers, and thus grow a double crop on one field, such con- 

 duct was disallowed ; for the reason that the crop was inferior, 

 and the more honest grower, who conscientiously cleared his 

 plants, and gave them abundance of room to grow, was dis- 

 honestly competed with ; and the first rate character of the 

 Virginian crop prejudiced by the action." 



Fairholt makes a mistake in speaking of the planter as 

 re-setting the suckers, and his statement shows him to be 

 entirely unacquainted with the habits of the plant. As soon 

 as the plants are harvested, the stump of the plant remaining 

 in the ground puts forth one or more vigorous suckers or 

 shoots, which often in a good season grow almost as high as 

 the parent stalk. In some tobacco-growing sections one or 

 two crops of suckers are gathered besides the first crop. 



The Creole planters in Louisiana are said to grow three 

 crops in this manner, the first or parent crop and two growths 

 of suckers. The quality of leaf, however, is greatly inferior, 

 as it is small and thin and lacking in all the qualities neces- 

 sary for a fine leaf. The planters now adopted new methods 

 of culture, and cultivated several species of the plant known 

 as Oronoko and little Frederick, although they did not fer- 

 tilize the fields, even when the soil became impoverished, but 

 simply took new fields for its culture. 



Hugh Jones says of the kinds of tobacco grown in 

 Virginia : 



"The land between the James and York rivers seemes 

 nicely adapted for sweet scented tobacco ; for 'tis observed 

 that the goodness decreaseth the farther you go to the north- 

 ward of the one, and the southward of the other ; but this 

 may be (I believe) attributed in some measure to the seed and 

 management, as well as to the land and latitude : For on 

 York river in a small tract of land called Diggens neck, which 

 is poorer than a great deal of other land in the same latitude, 

 by a particular seed and management, is made the famous 

 crop known by the name of E Dees, remarkable for its mild 

 taste and fine smell." He speaks of the planters and their 

 plantations as follows : "Neither the interests nor inclina- 

 tions of the Virginians induces them to cohabit in towns: so 



