68 TOBACCO. 



in the ground before the old crop is disposed of. 

 There is no vegetable which has so many enemies. 

 Like the silk worm, every insect appears to be its en- 

 emy, and yet when tobacco is manufactured, no ani- 

 mal will use it besides man, with the single exception 

 of the monkey. 



I shall enumerate some of the enemies of the tobac- 

 co plant. The most voracious of all is the horn 

 worm. Then come the bud worm, the ground worm, 

 the web worm. There is also a fly which devours the 

 plants while in the bed, and which follows them when 

 they are carried to the field. 



The most common method of ridding the plants of 

 these enemies, is to pick them off by hand ; but I have 

 seen chickens, ducks, turkies, &c., turned into the 

 field, where they soon wake war with the enemy. 



It is a historical fact, that in the year 1622, only 

 20,000 pounds of tobacco were raised in Virginia. 

 In the beginning of the Revolution 100,000,000 of 

 pounds for four years were raised, from 1772 to 1775. 

 In 1789, the quantity raised was 89,000,000 of Ibs. 

 The quantity increased until 1815, until w r hich time 

 the production of tobacco averaged 82,000 hogs- 

 heads, or upwards of 99,000,000 pounds annually. 

 In the year 1834, there were exported from the Unit- 

 ed States 87,979 hogsheads of tobacco to different 

 ports in Europe, and the exports of tobacco in the 

 year 1836 amounted to something more than 12,000,- 

 000 of dollars. 



