748 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 12 



the Philadelphia commercial list, October 13th, 

 the stock of Kentucky and Virginia tobacco in 

 Europe, on the 1st January, 1837, was 40,904 

 hhds. In 1838, 23,464 hhds., decrease 17,430. 

 Stock of Kentucky and Virginia tobacco in the 

 United States, 1st January, 1837, was 26,310 

 hhds., in 1838, 15,835 hhds., decrease 10,475 

 hhds. Total deficiency of stocks in Europe and 

 the United States, of Kentucky and Virginia to- 

 bacco, January 1st, 1838—27,905 hhds. The 

 quantity of American tobacco required by Eu- 

 rope annually is one hundred thousand hogs- 

 heads. Of this quantity, from thirty to thirty-five 

 thousand hogsheads, are of the light descriptions, 

 or Maryland and Ohio ; consequently from sixty- 

 five to seventy thousand hhds. of heavy or Ken- 

 tucky and Virginia are required to meet the con- 

 sumption in Europe." 



Virginia has, for the last century, furnished the 

 European markets with the richest and best to- 

 bacco, Maryland with the finest and most delicate 

 of fibre, and the West Indies grow tobacco re- 

 markable for delicacy of flavor. The leaves of 

 a well-grown plant of Virginia tobacco, are from 

 2 to 3 feet long, of a pale green color when 

 fresh ; and when properly cured of a yellowish 

 cast ; having a strong narcotic smell and acrid 

 burning taste. The active constituent or princi- 

 ple of the plant is an essential oil, obtained by 

 distillation. When this oil is taken in the sto- 

 mach or applied to the surface of the body, it pro- 

 duces nausea and vomiting; it often proves vio- 

 lently cathartic, attended with alarming vertigo, 

 great debility and general relaxation. 



The system, however, becomes easily habituat- 

 ed to the uee of tobacco, and it is used in large 

 quantities as a luxury, without experiencing any 

 other bad efl'ect than what arises from individuals 

 being unable to relinquish iis use, after the habit 

 of chewing is formed. When chewed in sub- 

 stance, it causes an increased flow of saliva, and in 

 many instances relieves sore eyes and tooth-ache. 

 When reduced to powder and snuffed up the nose, 

 it proves an excellent sternutatory. The tincture 

 of tobacco acts powerfully as a diuretic and has 

 proved successful in dropsy and dysuria. It is 

 also applied externally for the cure" of obstinate 

 cutarieous diseases. "In the form of smoke, and 

 infusion, it has been used with great success by 

 way of injection in obstinate constipation of the 

 bowels, and in the reduction of scrotal hernia. 



2ndly. As we are acquainted with the culture 

 of tobacco, in Virginia, I will pass it by and give 

 a short account of the West India culture, one 

 hundred and forty years ago. I do this for the 

 purpose of showing the great difference in the 

 Virginia and West India mode of cultivation : the 

 !atter is cultivated with far less expense, inas- 

 much as it will be shown, that the tobacco crop in 

 the West Indies requires no fire in the curing pro- 

 cess. 



''After sowing tobacco seeds, the ground is 

 watered every day, and in hot weather covered to 

 prevent its being scorched by the rays of the sun; 

 and when the plants are grown to a certain pitch, 

 they are transplanted into a soil well prepared for 

 their reception : care is also taken to keep the 

 ground clear of weeds, and to pull off the lower 

 leaves of the plant, that fifteen of the finest leaves 

 may have all the nourishment. When these 

 leaves are ripe, which is known by their breaking 



when bent, the stalks are cut, and left to dry 2 or 

 3 hours in the sun ; after which they are tied to- 

 gether two and two, and hung on ropes under the 

 shade to be dried in the air: and when the leaves 

 are sufficiently dried they are pulled from the 

 stalks, and made up in little bundles ; which be- 

 ing steeped in sea-water, or for want thereof, in 

 common water, are twisted in manner of ropes, 

 and the twists Ibrmed into rolls by winding thena 

 with a kind of mill around a stick : in which con- 

 dition it is imported into Europe, where it is cut by 

 the tobacconists for smoking, chewing, formed inta 

 snuff' and the like."' 



3dly. I will now make some remarks on the 

 demoralizing effects of the tobacco culture in east- 

 ern Virginia. What I might ask, has produced 

 the wretched and deplorable state of things ob- 

 servation presents to our view in the tobacco re- 

 gion of Virginia? I speak with reference to the 

 exhausted state of our farms ; lands naturally the 

 best in the world ; have become worn and ex- 

 hausted by the culture of tobacco. The bitter 

 weed has laid the forest low and left us nothing 

 but galls, gullies and dwarf pine ! If our system 

 of agriculture be correct, how does it happen that 

 our lands have deteriorated ; and how are we to 

 account for the fact, that in the tobacco region of 

 Virginia, we have much steril surface ; one half 

 being unfit for cultivation, and the other half af- 

 fording a scant return to the agriculturist? Let 

 those answer the question who have cultivated to- 

 bacco. The great object heretofore has been, toget 

 as much forest cleared as possible, make a few crops 

 of tobacco, to be followed with grain ; until the 

 soil by hard culture and frequent washings be- 

 comes exhausted, and the land abandoned. This 

 Virginia can witness; the system, to say the least 

 of it, is wasteful, unproductive and immoral. Cut 

 down, wear out and walk off', has been the system 

 pursued in the tobacco region lor the last century. 

 The ci:ltivation of tobacco, has not only exhaust- 

 ed our lands ; if this was all, we could bear it, but 

 it has left us poor ; its influence is Jelt in eastern 

 Virginia, and extends to our slaves, horses, cattle, 

 sheep and hogs, and I might say down to the cats 

 and dogs. Our ridges have become so barren, 

 that they do not atibrd cover for the partridges, 

 and they have followed the soil down branches 

 and creeks, hovering in the flats. We should all 

 mourn over such a state of things. Poor old 

 Virginia ! She once stood high, the pride of man, 

 the pride of fame ; now fallen. She gave birth to 

 all that was great and good in America, she gave 

 birth to American liberty, history, eloquence and 

 religious freedom, and shall Virginia, the mother 

 of 25 states, the land of Washington, the boast 

 of Jefferson, Monroe, Madison, Marshall, Henry 

 and a host of worthies, be reduced by injudicious 

 culture to a caput mortuum 7 Her forest has 

 been swept away, and her great men of genius 

 and worth, together with the hard cultivators of 

 the soil, the bone and sinew of the land, have, by 

 thousands and tens of thousands, been driven out 

 of the state, in search of better lands. 



Where are the talented sons of Virginia now? 

 a few linger in the state unnoticed, many have 

 wended their way to the north, south and west. 

 New Jersey can boast of an Alexander, one of the 

 most distinguished theologians in the United 

 States. Pennsylvania can boast of a Chapman, 

 a Gibson, and a Horner, men that do honor to the 



