GETTING TO MARKET. 73 



" I believe rolling tobacco the distance of many hundred 

 miles, is a mode of conveyance peculiar to Virginia; and 

 for which the early population of that country deserve a 

 very handsome credit. JSecessity (that very prolific mother 

 of invention), first suggested the idea of rolling by hand; 

 time and experience have led to the introduction of horses, 

 and have ripened human skill, in this kind of carriage, to a 

 degree of perfection which merits the adoption of the mother 

 country, but which will be better explained under the next 

 head of this subject. 



" The hogsheads, which are designed to be rolled in com- 

 mon hoops, are made closer in the joints than if they were 

 intended for the wagon ; and are plentifully hooped with 

 strong hickory hoops (which is the toughest kind of wood), 

 with the bark upon them, which remains for some distance & 



CARRYING TOBACCO TO MARKET. 



protection against the stones. Two hickory saplings are 

 affixed to the hogshead, for shafts by boring an auger-hole 

 through them to receive the gudgeons or pivots, in the man- 

 ner of a field rolling-stone ; and these receive pins of wood, 

 with square tapered points, which are admitted through 

 square mortises made central in the heading, and driven a 

 considerable deptli into the solid tobacco. Upon the hind 

 part of these shafts, between the horses and the hogshead, a 

 few light planks are nailed, and a kind of little cart body is 

 constructed of a sufficient size to contain a bag or two of 



