1837.] 



FARMERS' RE&ISTER. 



643 



into those disputes, since I must modestly remem- 

 ber to whom 1 write. Often, in the looser banks 

 ol' shells and earth, are found perlect teeth peire- 

 fied, some whereof I have seen, could not be less 

 than two or tliree inches long, and above an inch 

 broad: tho' tl>ey were not maxilary teeth, the 

 part that one niijjfht suppose grew out of the jaw, 

 was polisli'd, and black, almost as jett; the part 

 which had been fastened in the jaw and gums, 

 was brown, and not so shiningly polished, or 

 smooth ; if they were, as they seemed to be, really 

 teeth, I suppose, they must have been of fishes. 

 The back-bone of a whale, and as I remember, 

 they told me of some of the ribs, were digg'd out 

 of the side ot" a hill, several yards deep in the 

 grouiul, about four miles distant lloiii James Ttnvn 

 and the river. Mr. Banister, a gentleman pretty 

 curious in those things, shewed me likewise the 

 joynt of a whale's back-bone, and several teeth, 

 some whereof he said, were found in hills beyond 

 the falls of James River, at least a hundred and 

 fifty miles up into the country. The soil in gene- 

 ral is sandy. I had designed, and I think it might 

 be worth a critical remark, to observe, the dificr- 

 ence of soils seem appropriated to the several 

 sorts of tobacco ; for there is not only the two dis- 

 tinct sorts of a sweet-scented, and Aranoko tobacco, 

 but of each of these be sevefal sorts much ddiisr- 

 ent, the seeds whereof are known by distinct 

 names, they having given them the names of 

 those gentlemen most famed for such sort oftobac- 

 00, as of Prior seed, &c. Nay, the same sort of 

 .seed in diHerent earths, will produce tobacco much 

 different, as to goodness. The richer the ground, 

 the better it is for Aranoko tobacco, whose scent is 

 not much minded, their only aim being to have 

 it specious, large, and to procure it a bright kite's 

 foot colour. Had not my microscopes, &c. tools 

 to grind glasses, been cast away, with my other 

 things, I had made some critical enquiries into 

 their several natures ; I would have examined 

 what proportion of salts, all the sorts of earths 

 had afforded, and how water impregnated with 

 their salts, would have changed with infusing 

 galls, how with the syrup of violets, and how they 

 would have precipitated mercury, or the like, and 

 so far forth as 1 had been able, examined them by 

 the several tryals of fire. I conceive tobacco to be 

 a plant abounding w^ith nitro-sulphurious particles; 

 for the planters try the goodness of their seed, by 

 casting a little thereof into the fire , if it be good, 

 it will sparkle after the manner of gun-powder: 

 so will the stalks of tobacco-leaves, and. perhaps, 

 has something analagous to the narcotick sulphur 

 of Venus, which the chymists so industriously la- 

 bour after. The w^orid knows little of the efficacy 

 of its oyl, which has wonderful effects in the cur- 

 ing of old inveterate sores, and scrophulous swell- 

 ings, and some, otherwise applied and qualified. 

 The goodness of tobacco, I look on, primarily con- 

 sists in the volatility of its nitre: and hence the 

 sandy grounds that are most impregnated there- 

 with, and whose nitrous salt is most volatile, for 

 such grounds are quickliest spent, yield tobaccoes 

 that have the richest scent, and that shortly be- 

 comes a pleasant s.moak ; whereas, in tobacco that 

 grows on stifl' ground, the salts seem more fixed, 

 and lock'd up in the oyl, so that whilst new, 'tis 

 very heady and strong, and requires some time for 

 its salts to free themselves, and become volatile ; 

 which it manifests, by its having an urinous smell. 



The same reason satisfies why tobacco that grows 

 on low lands as far as the salts, tho' the plant be 

 never overflowed with salt-water, yet the ground 

 that ft;eds the plant, being impregnated wilti salt- 

 water, that tobacco smoaks not pleasantly, o.nd 

 will scarcely keep fire, but do all that a man can, 

 will oft go out, and gives inach trouble in frequent 

 lighting the pipe, 'till. after it has been kept some 

 considerable time : which may be assign'd to the 

 fixeder saline particles of the marine salt in these 

 plants, which require more time e'er they be ren- 

 der'd volatile. Here it might be worthy an enquiry 

 into the nature of filtration of plants, since we 

 may hence gather, particles of the marine salt are 

 carried along with the succus nutritiits of the 

 plant; concerning which, if it were not too much 

 to deviate from the matter in hand, I should offer 

 some reflections of my own, which the learned 

 society might perhaps improve : fhr I think, thence 

 might be made many happy conjectures as to the 

 virtues of plants. So where we see plants, or 

 trees, of an open pore, growing low, we shall find 

 their juice has subtile parts: so have all vines, 

 whether the grape vine, or briony, or a smilax, or 

 the like. If a guminous plant or tree, that grows 

 low, and close pored, it abounds with acid spirits, 

 as lignum, vitce, &c. if it giou- tall, and be open 

 pored, it abounds with a subtile volatile spirit, as 

 y6ur firrs, and the turpentine free. But to insist 

 no further herein, than as this may be applicable 

 to the present discourse: for I have observed, that 

 that which is called pine-wood land, though it be 

 a sandy soil, even the sweet-scented tobacco that 

 grows thereon, being large and porous, agreeable to 

 A ranoko tobacco ; it smoaks as coursly as Aranoko : 

 wherefore, 'tis, that I believe the microscope might 

 make notable discoveries towards the knowledge 

 ot good tobacco : for the closer the composition of 

 the feaf, the better the tobacco ; and, therefore, the 

 planters and merchants brag of the substance of 

 their tobacco; which word, did they always take 

 it in a true sence, for the solidness, and not mistake 

 it for the thickness, it would be more consonant to 

 a true observation : for as I said of the pine-wood 

 tobacco, some of it is thick and tiot solid, and dif- 

 fers from the best tobacco, as buff does from tann'd 

 leather; so that if the tobacco be sound and not 

 rotten, you may give a great guess at the good- 

 ness of tobacco, when you weigh the hogsheads, 

 before you see them : for if an equal care be taken 

 in the packing of them, the best tobacco will 

 weigh the heaviest, and pack the closest. Now 

 I said, that the sweet-scented tobacco most in 

 vogue, which was most fam'd for its scent, was 

 that that crrew on sandy land ; which is true, if 

 you would smoak it whilst new, or whilst only 

 two or three years old ; but if you keep the stiff 

 land tpbacco, which is generally a tobacco of great 

 substance, five or six years, it will much excel : 

 for though the sandy land tobacco abound with a 

 volatile nitre at first, yet the stiff land tobacco 

 abounds with a greater qurmtify of nitre, only 

 that it is lock'd up in its oyl at first, and requires 

 more time to extricate itself, and become volatile; 

 but the pine- wood land having little of the nitro- 

 sulphurious particles, neither is, nor ever will 

 make any thing of a rich smoak. Discoursing 

 hereof some days since, to a gentleman of good 

 observation, that has been versed with rnaulting, 

 he assured me, to back this, my supposition or 

 hypothesis, he had observed, that bariey that 



