MARYLAND PLANT-BED. 



75 



feeling of the hand. A barrel of water with six handfuls of 

 gait are the proportions. After all this the tobacco leaves 

 may be laid aside for commercial exportation. They will 

 remain fresh for three years." 



In Maryland they formerly prepared the land for a plant- 

 bed by burning upon it a great quantity of brush-wood, 



KNRICHI!s 7 G PLANT-BED. 



afterwards raking the surface fine ; the seed was then sowed 

 broadcast. The young plants were kept free from weeds, 

 and were transplanted when about two inches high. 

 The cultivation of tobacco gradually spread from one State 

 to another. From Virginia it was introduced into North 

 Carolina and Maryland and finally Kentucky which is now 

 the largest producing tobacco State in the Union. The 

 demand for Virginia" tobacco continued to increase and long 

 before the Revolutionary war, Virginia exported annually 

 thousands of hogsheads of leaf tobacco. Half a century 

 ago the plant began to be cultivated in Ohio and from the 

 first grew remarkably well, producing a leaf adapted for both 

 cutting and cigar purposes. 



Tobacco was planted in New Netherland (New York) by 



