This served to raise the price of some Virginia tobacco 

 to high levels. 



These developments accelerated a trend toward re- 

 duced acreages for tobacco. By the middle 19th century 

 an average of six acres or less in farms of 50 to 500 acres 

 was given over to tobacco. This was thought by crop- 

 masters to be large enough areas to produce an annual 

 average of 3,500 pounds of fine quality leaf. 



Improved methods on the farm had not, however, ap- 

 preciably reduced the time-consuming work of the 

 farmer with the demanding, sensitive plant. One of Vir- 

 ginia's outstanding agriculturists, John Taylor of Caro- 

 line County, had commented on the farmers' lot: 



It would startle even an old planter to see an 

 exact account of the labour devoured by an acre 

 of tobacco, and the preparation of the crop for 

 market. He would be astonished to discover 

 how often he had passed over the land, and the 

 tobacco through his hands, in fallowing, hilling, 

 cutting off hills, planting and replanting, top- 

 pings, succerings, weedings, cuttings, picking 

 up, removing out of the ground by Jmnd, hang- 

 ing, striking, stripping, stemming, and prizing. 



T. 



tie break in selling traditions 



Other notable changes, apart from modernized agri- 

 cultural methods, were to have a profound effect on 

 Virginia's tobacco industry. Selling leaf by auction at 

 warehouses, for instance, began tentatively around 1810, 

 apparently first at Lynchburg. Hogsheads brought to 



23 



