CULTURE AND CURING IN VIRGINIA. 215 



of price and consumption in Europe that in 1621 storehouses and factories were established at Middleburgh and 

 Flushing, and 55,000 pounds were exported to Holland, but none to England, because of the excessive impost 

 already mentioned. In 1G22 the crop was 60,000 pounds, (a) James T had, as stilted, in extorting a revenue from 

 the sale of tobacco, violated tin: charter granted the Virginia Company (which was revoked in 1624 and the 

 company dissolved). His successor, Charles I, with narrow selfishness and an utter disregard of the interests of 

 the colonists, went farther, and proposed that a monopoly should be granted him, to which the colonial assembly 

 entered their protest, and by act passed March 26, 1628, offered to contract with the king for all their tobacco at 

 3s. Gd. per pound, delivered in Virginia free of freight or customs, or 4s. if delivered in London, its good quality 

 to be insured by an examination by sworn inspectors after being cured. They also requested the king to take 

 annually at least 500,000 pounds weight at the prices stated, and if he should not be disposed to take the overplus, 

 if there should be any, that they be permitted to ship it to the Low Countries, Ireland, Turkey, or elsewhere. They 

 offered to contract for seven years, with the request that, if the consumption of England, with the quantity above 

 stipulated, should exceed the supply from the lower islands, it might be proportionably increased ; and in the 

 event of the king's acceding to these terms, they requested that the importation of Spanish tobacco be prohibited. (&) 

 It was stated that they had ordered a proclamation to be made requiring the plants to be set 4 feet apart, (c) and 

 twelve leaves only to be gathered, instead of twenty-five or thirty, as had been the custom, great care to be 

 taken also not to burn it in sweating, and they had reduced the quantity to be planted as low as they could, 

 considering the population of the colony and a due regard to the culture of corn. In March, 1629, increased 

 production was allowed in the admission of "2,000 pounds for every head" in a family, "including women and 

 children," but " bad or ill-conditioned tobacco" was required to be burnt under the penalty of being debarred from 

 planting until readmitted by an act of the assembly, (d) In February, 1631-'32, in consideration of the low price of 

 tobacco, the poll-tax, which had been 5 pounds, was increased to 10 pounds of tobacco, with the addition of a bushel 

 of corn, (e) the price of tobacco in barter being fixed at Gd. per pound. (/) It was also enacted that " noe person should 

 tend over fourteen leaves, nor gather over nine leaves upon a plant of tobacco, nor tend any slips of old stalks, or any 

 of the second crop" upon forfeiture of the whole crop raised, (g) and "all tobacco was to be taken down before the end 

 of November, or else not to be adjudged or accounted merchantable", (h) By act passed February, 1632-'33, it was 

 provided that " five storehouses be appointed severally at James City, Shirley Hundred, Denbeigh, Southampton 

 river in Elizabeth City, and Kiskyoke", and the planters were obliged to bring in all of their tobacco to the same 

 before the last day of December, where it was to be repacked, viewed, and tried by sworn men appointed for the 

 purpose, the quantity entered to the several accounts of the planters, and then all payments of debts were to be 

 made at these storehouses, in the presence of the keeper. No tobacco was to be "made upp in rolle", except 

 between the first day of August and the last day of October, (i) "and no other tobacco to be made up at all." (.7) 

 It was directed also that " the planters shall endeavor themselves to plant and sowe those kindes of the long sortes, 

 and all other sortes the next yeare shall be quite left off and given over", (k) 



a Hening's Statutes at Large, i, p. 120. Bishop (History of American Manufactures, \, p. 30) says 66,000 pounds. 



4 Henhijj, i, pp. 134-'5, " Mr. Edward Bonnet, a citizen of London, was presented with the freedom of the company, because he had 

 written a treatise, setting forth, in a clear and lively manner, the great inconvenience and damage to the nation from this cause" 

 (Stith, p. 199). 



c In the time of Glover the distance was reduced to 4 feet, and in that of Smyth, the English traveler, who visited Virginia in 

 1773, to 3 feet (see Virginia Historical liegister, vi, 81), which is the distance at the present time. Smyth adds that " the produce of 

 an acre in the culture of tobacco, in the best land, is about 1,660 pounds; on the worst, about 500 pounds. (Ibid., p. 132.) Beverley 

 states that in his day (1722) a dozen hands would produce 16,000 pounds of " sweet-scented" and sometimes more (p. 212). 



d Heuiug, i, p. 152. 



e Ibid., p. 159. 



/ Hid., p. 162. 



g Ibid., p. 164. 



h Ibid., p. 165. 



t The time was afterward extended to the last day of December. 



j Heuing, i, pp. 204-205. 



k Ibid., p. 205, Clayton (Force's Tracts, vol. iii, No. 12, p. 18) says: "There are not only the two distinct sorts of sweet-scented and 

 Aranoka ; but of each of these there be several sorts much different, the seeds whereof are known by distinct names, they having been given 

 the names of those gentlemen most famed for such sort of tobacco, as 'Pryor' seed, etc. Nay, the same sort of seed in different earths 

 will produce tobacco much different as to goodness. The richer the ground, the better it is for Aranoka tobacco, whose scent is not much 

 minded, their only aim being to have it spacious, large, and to procure it of a bright color." To insure an early setting of the plants, he 

 steeped the seed in an infusion of stable manure and soot. In sowing the seed he mixed them with ashes. Of the varieties of tobacco, Jones 

 writes: "There are two sorts of tobacco, viz, the Oroonoko, the stronger; and sweet-scented, the milder; the first with n sharper leaf, 

 like a fox's ear, and the other rounder and with finer fibers; but each of them is varied into several sorts. * * The land in the 

 latitude between James and York rivers seems most nicely adapted for sweet-scented, or the finest tobacco ; for it is observed that the 

 goodness decreaseth the further you go northward of the one and the southward of the other. But this may be, I believe, attributed in 

 some measure to the seed and management, as wo!l as to the laud and latitude; for on York river, in :i small tract of land called DiV/ffe*' 

 Neck [from Edward Digges. who was governor iu 1655], which is poorer than a groat deal ot other land in the same latitude, by a 

 particular seed and management is made the famous crop known by the name of 'E Dees', remarkable for its mild taste and tine smell" 

 (The Present State, of Virginia, Hugh Jones, 1724, pp. 34-39). 



In Mair's Bookkeeping, Edinburgh, 1765 (pp. 231-234), the following lesser varieties are enumerated: Long-green, Thick-joint, Brazil, 



809 



