280 



TOBACCO AND CORN. 



We make the following extract from a very 

 excellent essay read by Mr. Richard F. Darra- 

 cott before the Agricultural Society of Hanover: 



TO THE HANOVER AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Essay on "the propriety of extending the culture 

 of Tobacco" and the best means of cultivating 

 ike same. 



In considering the utility of cultivating to- 

 bacco, it is deemed advisable to enter upon an 

 estimate of the comparative value of that and 

 the corn crop, for a portion of which it is usually 

 substituted. All will readily admit, that the 

 crop which affords the largest profit to the 

 planter, on the labor expended, will enable him, 

 other things being equal, to make the greatest 

 improvement of his farm, and to enhance the 

 comforts of his home. 



Let the comparison be made thus : Take an 

 acre of land rich enough to produce eight bar- 

 rels of corn, and estimate the value of the crop 

 as follows : 



Eight barrels of corn, at 15 shillings per 



barrel, $20 00 



Four cwt. of blade fodder, at 50 cents 



per cwt. 2 00 



Shucks, stocks and top fodder, may be 



put at 2 00 



$24 00 



Land that will produce 8 barrels of corn 

 per acre, will, with equal certainty, 

 bring 10 cwt. of tobacco, which being 

 estimated at $4 per, cwt. will produce 

 the sum of 40 00 



Giving a balance in favor of the tobac- 

 co crop of $16 00 

 It is manifest, that to make a crop of tobacco, 

 requires more labor than to make one of corn ; 

 but much of the additional labor requisite to be 

 done, is performed by small and infirm hands, 

 and at a season of the year when not much 

 else of importance is found to engage the far- 

 mer's attention ; and when the weather is so in- 

 clement, that it would be imprudent to employ 

 the laborers out of doors. The more convenient 

 and cheaper transportation of the crop to mar- 

 ket, is a saving to the planter, by no means to 

 be overlooked in the estimate. Another advan- 

 tage properly placed to the credit of this crop, 

 is that it is a cash article. The farmer receives 

 the whole sum at once, and may immediately 

 make such disposition of it, as his necessities 

 require or his inclination prompts. 



It is difficult to estimate with accuracy, the 

 difference in the amount of labor required for 

 the cultivation of the two crops, but it may be 

 safely asserted, that it does not amount to more 



than $6 per acre, against the tobacco crop; 

 which being taken as the difference, will leave 

 still in its favor, the sum of $10 per acre. 



The foregoing estimate, if correct, settles the 

 point, that tobacco, and that at a low price, is a 

 more profitable crop than corn, its natural com- 

 petitor. It will of course be understood, that if 

 there takes place any considerable change in 

 the prices of these articles, the estimate should 

 vaiy according to the change ; and that in dis- 

 tricts of country where the soil has a peculiar 

 fitness for corn, and is illy adapted to the growth 

 of tobacco, the reverse of the above calculation 

 will most likely prove true. 



If, then, we have established the fact, that 

 more profit is realised for one year, from one acre 

 of land cultivated in tobacco, than in corn, we 

 will next proceed to the consideration of the 

 comparative injury sustained by the land, when 

 cultivated in the one or the other crop. The 

 prevailing opinion is, that tobacco is the greater 

 exhauster of the two, and that no farm can be 

 kept long from rapid deterioration, on which it 

 is extensively cultivated. This erroneous opi- 

 nion, I think, has been fixed in the minds of the 

 present generation, by the land killing system 

 pursued by our ancestors ; who, finding it the 

 most money making crop, and that their rich 

 lands, cultivated in it, would pay them a large 

 per centage on the capital invested, cultivated 

 them year after year, successively, without re- 

 gard to the necessity of rotation in crops, and 

 without much regret at witnessing their mani- 

 fest depreciation, under a system of the most 

 exhausting cultivation, well knowing that from 

 the abundance of rich virgin land in this coun- 

 try, they could easily, when they had exhausted 

 one farm, obtain another. Such a course of til- 

 lage was well calculated to induce those, who 

 judged from appearances, and without reflection 

 on the subject, to conclude, that tobacco was 

 more injurious to land than any crop whatever. 

 But, on proper investigation of the matter, no 

 reason will be found, to justify such a conclu- 

 sion ; while, on the contrary, there is abundant 

 ground to sustain a different opinion. For, to- 

 bacco being a tap root plant, draws a portion of 

 its support from beneath the soil, while its many 

 broad leaves receive a large portion of nourish- 

 ment from the carbonic acid and carbonate of 

 ammonia, contained in the atmosphere. An- 

 other advantage arising from the cultivation of 

 tobacco is, that wheat grows better when pre- 

 ceded by it, than by any other crop. The 

 greatest objection to the tobacco crop is, that it 

 affords a very small amount of offal, from which 

 manure may be made ; but this evil is more 

 than compensated for in the excess of profit 

 arising from the tobacco ; for, according to the 

 foregoing estimate, the whole of the offal of the 

 eight barrels of corn made on the acre, amounted, 

 in value, to four dollars only, the manure itself 



