after the 1837 panic, and this form of selhng spread. 

 OflBcial hogshead inspections continued, however, to 

 be the procedure in many markets and for some time. 

 The growing practice of bringing loose leaf to author- 

 ized warehouses received legal sanction by the Virginia 

 Code of 1849. Thereafter, inspectors were required to 

 weigh and grade unprized tobacco. Improved methods 

 of auctions were introduced. In the next few decades 

 sales of loose leaf tobacco by auction had become fairly 

 standardized in many areas. Within a short while after 

 1865, this marketing method was soundly established. 



Unloading leaf 



A tobacco "break" at Lynchburg 



oor soil grows rich tobacco 



Around the late 1820's it was found that the "poor, 

 thin, useless, gray soils" of Pittsylvania and Halifax 

 Counties and adjoining areas to the immediate south 

 produced an attractive, light leaf of mild taste. Because 



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