CULTURE AND CURING IN VIRGINIA. 210 



An act was passed by the Virginia assembly at the session for October, 1710, for protection in the standard 

 of tobaeeo hogsheads, from "cropping, cutting away of the bulge", "drawing the staves," etc., its violation being 

 punishable with a line of 5 sterling, (a) The income of the secretary of the colony at this period from his fees 

 of office was about 110,000 pounds of tobacco. In October, 1712, rolling-houses (warehouses) were appointed for 

 each county in the colony, (b) so called from the manner in which tobacco was then transported, the hogshead 

 of tobacco being actually rolled to market on its own periphery through mud, mire, and stream. The cask was 

 made of good oak staves, well hooped, and into this cask the tobacco was pressed, layer by layer, by a lever some 

 30 or 40 feet long, inserted in a mortise made in a large tree for the fulcrum, against which the hogshead was 

 placed. When fully packed and headed, a wooden spike, some 2 feet long, was driven into the center of each head. 

 The ends, projecting some inches, were rounded, and thus formed an axle-tree, to which shafts, made of a split 

 sapling, were fitted. On these, in front of the cask, a few stabs were nailed, making a platform, which, with sides 

 added, formed a box, in which were stowed provisions for man and horse, a frying-pan, a hoe, an ax, and a blanket. 

 Attached to the rear was a contrivance for carrying fodder. If the distance was moderate, the hogshead was thus 

 rolled on its hoops as tires; but when the distance was considerable (from 50 to 150 miles), rough fellies were 

 spiked to each end about the quarter hoops, and these rude tires served to keep the cask out of the mud and 

 prevent its being worn through. The tobacco-roller, as the driver (usually the owner) was called, never sought 

 shelter on his journey often of :i week's duration but camped at night by the roadside. This mode continued 

 in vogue until alter the beginning of the present century. Arrived at market, and after having had it inspected, the 

 owner himself sold his tobacco, offering the note until he found a purchaser, often, by barter with the merchant, 

 receiving in exchange domestic supplies, (c) The price of storage for every cask of tobacco, or its equivaleut in 

 bulk (500 pounds), was l~2d. for the first day or first three months, and 6d. for every month afterward. In 1729 

 tobacco employed nearly three hundred sail of ships in its transportation from Virginia and Maryland, producing 

 jointly over <>00,000 worth, and yielding a revenue of 200,000 annually. 



It was enacted by the Virginia assembly, November, 1720, that "whoever shall weed, top, hill, succour, 

 house, cure, strip or pack any seconds, suckers or slips of tobacco, shall forfeit the same and pay a fine of 500 

 pounds of tobacco", (d) For the six years 1719-'24 the impost alone of 4<7. per pound on tobacco yielded to 

 Great Britain the sum of 59,529 7s. 2d. (e) 



The abuse of the tobacco trade in North Carolina continued, as was set forth in an act of the assembly passed 

 in 1726: 



Whereas the Act of the General Assembly now in force doth not effectually prevent the bringing of tobacco from North Carolina ; and 

 whereas since the making of the said act great numbers of people have, contrary to the repeated orders of this government, seated 

 themselves on the lands between Wiccon's Creek and the line rnn from the mouth of Nottoway river to describe the boundaries in 

 controversy between this Colon; and the said province, and are there encouraged and protected, under pretense of being under the 

 government of North Carolina, contrary to the agreement with that government that the said tract should remain unseated until the 

 bounds should be determined; which persons, so seated as aforesaid, as well as those inhabiting within the province of North Carolina, 

 being under no regulation in the manner of making and packing their tobacco, do, notwithstanding, make and transport in the colony, for 

 traffic and sale, great quantities of tobacco of the growth and manufacture of Virginia to the great deceit of honest traders and the 

 depreciating the staple commodity of this country. For the remedy whereof, a penalty was fixed of ten pounds fine for every hogshead, 

 barrel, or parcel so brought in. Hening, iv, pp. 175-177. 



This grievance doubtless hastened the running of the dividing line between Virginia and North Carolina in 

 1728, of which Colonel William Byrd has left so interesting an account. 



In May, 1730, it was enacted: "for the more effectual preventing the exportation of all trash, bad, unsound 

 and unmerchantable tobacco," it was required after the 1st of August of that year "that all which shall be 

 exported out of this Colony and Dominion to be brought to a public warehouse and inspected", an infringement 

 of this requirement being made a felony. The inspectors at each warehouse were- to be "three fit and able persons", 

 two of whom were to act as inspectors, and the third was to be called in case of difference of judgment, (/) the 

 tobacco, after being duly inspected and weighed, to be receipted for with notes, under the hands and seals of the 

 inspectors of the warehouse, for the tobacco, specified as sweet-scented or Orinoco, stemmed or leaf, the same 

 to be current and payable for all tobacco payments within the county where issued, or any county adjacent thereto. 

 Thirty pounds was made the allowance for cask and 5. as the price of the hogshead, well-lined and fit for 

 shipping, and each hogshead was to contain not less than 800 pounds. (</) The allowance to the inspector for 



a Hening, ii, p. 498. 



b Ibid., iv, pp. 32-36. 



c Article, "Tobacco", by Samuel Mordecai, in the Traneacllont of the Virginia State Agricultural Society, vol. i, 1853, p. 57. 



(J Ileuing, iv, p. 87. 



e Beawes, Lex Mercatoria Hedivira. London, 1773, p. 561. 



/ Hening, iv, pp. 247-271. 



g The hogsheads, as first described, contained about 350 pounds, and were enlarged successively to the capacity of 500, 800, 850, 900 

 950, l,000(act of October, 1778), and 1,100 pounds, though they were often latterly much greater. In JUairs Bool;leepinij, Edinburgh, 1705, 

 it is stated (p. :;:!!) that they were frequently 1,400 and even 1,800 pounds in weight. In the MS. Account Book of Thomas Stegge, 

 auditor-general of the colony, of several hundred hogsheads received by him us dues and shipped in the years 1663-'6fi, the weights as 

 enumerated by him range from 420 to 755 pounds. 813 



