718 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



done by long poles with iron hooks at the 

 ends ; so that two or three strong hands 

 can take hold of the burning logs and roll 

 them from the ridge of fire to the next place 

 to be burnt; in the meantime the weaker 

 hands have brought brush to intermix with 

 the burning logs, and fresh supply of fuel 

 being added to the mass, the fire is kept 

 up until the process of thorough burning 

 is again completed — and 1 thus by another 

 and another removal and replenishing the 

 fires, the whole surface of the plant-patch 

 is burnt, and is ready to be hoed up for 

 sow r ing the seed. 



This applies chiefly to the plantations of 

 rich, virgin soils, when first brought into 

 cultivation, but since the new impulse 

 given to the tobacco culture by the high 

 prices and the use of guano — many expe- 

 dients are resorted to to raise plants where 

 the best soil has been long ago used up; 

 but in any circumstances, the time and 

 labor necessary for the plant-patches must 

 be given — and altho gh the recent use of 

 guano has saved something in both — still 

 this plant-patch work must be a large item 

 in the tobacco culture. 



The ground being ready for seeding, is 

 carefully broken up by hand-hoes about 

 four inches deep, taking out every root- 

 fibre, and mixing the covering of ashes 

 left by the fires with the soil— raked, 

 levelled and marked off into rows three 

 feet wide, and one-half the proper quanti- 

 ty of seed for the whole patch sown, and 

 afterwards the other sown between lines 

 across the first, in order to insure an equal 

 distribution of the seed. Then after tread- 

 ing over the whole surface, it is ready 

 for covering. The straightest brush, free 

 from leaves is preferred for this purpose, 

 and is compactly laid from 18 inches to 2 

 feet thick upon the ground. This straight 

 and leafless brush is not often found near, 

 and is sometimes a mile off, but be it far 

 or near, it must be had, for no pains are ever 

 spared in whatever concerns the tobacco. 

 All this done, the whole is inclosed with 

 an ample fence — which makes another 

 draft upon the adjacent timber for the ne- 

 cessary fence rails. 



Thus the choicest spots of virgin soil in 

 the tobacco districts are cleared for 

 making plants, and afterwards left as 

 useless wastes, that but mark the expen- 

 diture of sturdy labor, and vast consump- 

 tion of the finest timber in this first stage 



of the process of producing this staple 

 of Virginia agriculture. This business of 

 plant-patch making takes up usually from 

 three to four weeks of every winter. 

 The rule - is to provide a thousand super- 

 ficial yards in plant-patches for every 100,- 

 000 hills in the crop — but three or four 

 times this proportion of plant-land is usu- 

 ally prepared in order to insure success — 

 and after all, we often hear of scarcity 

 and failure in plants. In a favorable season, 

 there are always four times as many plants 

 raised as are necessary to plant the crop — 

 and of course three fourths of the labor 

 and consumption of the timber in raising 

 plants, being thus surplusage, is a dead 

 loss to the planter, to say nothing of the 

 diminished value of his estate by these 

 depredations upon the forest lands, a de- 

 gree of reckless wastefulness incident to 

 no other crop. In an unfavorable season 

 the loss is still greater — for when it is too 

 dry the plants are watered, and when 

 they grow slowly they are stimulated by 

 top-dressing, and when the fly assails 

 them they must be driven off or destroyed 

 by promptly resorting to some of thaiin- 

 numerable expedients invented by this 

 class of cultivators of unequal vigilance in 

 all the other departments of agriculture in 

 this country or in any other. For, as has 

 been already said, whenever anything can 

 be conceived or imagined likel} T to affect 

 the plant-patch unfavorably, or the tobac- 

 co crop in any of its stages — it never 

 escapes the tobacco-maker, and heaven 

 and earth are moved forthwith on that 

 plantation, until the needful or imaginary 

 remedy is provided — cost what it may in 

 labor — in teams, in vehicles, in manures 

 both liquid and pulverized. If the plant- 

 patch wants watering, it is irrigated, 

 although the water, as is often the case, 

 must be fetched in tubs or pails on the 

 negroes' heads from a considerable dis- 

 tance. Some of the remedies against the 

 fly, a regular pest more or less, are sweep- 

 ing the surface with soft brooms, covering 

 the plants with various powders of sup- 

 posed ofTensiveness to the insects — shaking 

 a sheet with the lower side coyered with 

 some glutinous sizing to catch the hopping 

 insects which stick to its surface, &c, &c, 

 consuming an amount of labor and time 

 hardly to be conceived but by one unac- 

 quainted with the details of tobacco- 

 making. In short, the tobacco is the idol 



