ACTS LIMITING QUANTITY. 321 



admirable fallow crop, and, under a scientific system of agri- 

 culture, it is grown with no continued detriment to the soil. 

 But in Virginia it was grown without interruption or alter- 

 nation, and the plantations rapidly deteriorated in fertility. 

 As they did so, the crops grew smaller in proportion to the 

 labor expended upon them ; yet, from the continued impor- 

 tation of laborers, the total crops of the colony increased 

 annually, and the market value fell proportionately to the 

 better supply. 



"With smaller return for labor and lower prices, the 

 planters soon found themselves bankrupt, instead of nabobs. 

 How could they help themselves? Only by forcing the 

 merchants to pay them higher prices. But how to do that, 

 when every planter had his crop pledged in advance, and 

 was obliged to hurry it off at any price he could get for it, 

 in order to pay for his food, and drink, and clothing, and to 

 keep his head above water at credit for the following year. 

 The crop supplied more tobacco than was needed, but no one 

 man would cease to plant it, or lessen his crop for the general 

 good. Then it was agreed all men must be made to do so, 

 and the colonial legislature was called upon to make them. 



" Acts were accordingly passed to prevent any planter from 

 cultivating more than a certain number of plants to each 

 hand he employed in labor, and prescribing the number of 

 leaves which might be permitted to ripen upon each plant 

 permitted to be grown. An inspection of all tobacco, after 

 it had been prepared for market, was decreed, and the in- 

 spectors were bound by oath, after having rejected all of 

 inferior quality, to divide the good into two equal parts, and 

 then to burn and destroy one of them. Thus, it was ex- 

 pected the quantity of tobacco offered for sale would be so 

 small that merchants would be glad to pay better prices for 

 it, and the planters would be relieved of their embarrass- 

 ment." 



Mrs. M. P. Handy gives the following interesting sketch, 

 entitled "On the Tobacco Plantation": 



" Riding through Southside, Virginia, any warm, bright 

 winter's day after Christmas, the stranger may be startled to 

 see a dense column of smoke rising from the forest beyond. 

 He anxiously inquires of the first person he meets probably 

 a negro if the woods are on fire. Cuffee shows his white 

 teeth in a grin that is half amusement, half contempt, as he 

 answers: <No, sar, deys jis btirnin' a plant-patch.' For this 

 is the first step in tobacco-culture. 

 21 



