MARYLAND PLANT-BED. a5 
feeling of the hand. A barrel of water with six handfuls of 
salt are the proportions. After all this the tobacco leaves 
may be laid aside for commercial exportation. They will 
remain fresh for three years.” 
In Maryland they formerly prepared the land for a plant- 
bed by burning upon it a great quantity of brush-wood, 
ENRICHING PLANT-BED, 
afterwards raking the surface fine; the seed was then sowed 
broadcast. The young plants were kept free from weeds, 
and were transplanted when about two inches high. 
The cultivation of tobacco gradually spread from one State 
to another. From Virginia it was introduced into North 
Carolina and Maryland and finally Kentucky which is now 
the largest producing tobacco State in the Union. The 
demand for Virginia tobacco continued to increase and long 
before the Revolutionary war, Virginia exported annually 
thousands of hogsheads of leaf tobacco. Half a century 
ago the plant began to be cultivated in Ohio and from the 
first grew remarkably well, producing a leaf adapted for both 
cutting and cigar purposes. 
Tobacco was planted in New Netherland (New York) by 
4 
