604 



DRUGS, ^^\RCOTICS, ET-c 



to keep it warm, and a slight fence thrown around it. In this condition it re- 

 mains until the frosts are all gone, when the brush is taken oif, and the young 

 plants are exposed to the nutritive and genial warmth of the sun, which quickly 

 invigorates them in an astonishing degree, and soon renders them strong and 

 large enough to he removed for planting, especially if they be not sown too 

 thick. Every tobacco planter, assiduous to secure a sufficient quantity of plants, 

 generally has several of these plant beds in different situations, so that if one 

 should fail, another may succeed ; and an experienced planter commonly takes 

 care to have ten times as many plants, as he can make use of. 



In these beds, along with the tobacco, they generally sow kale, colewort, and 

 cabbage seed, &c., at the same time. 



There are seven different kinds of tobacco, particularly adapted to the 

 different qualities of the soil on which they are cultivated, and each varying 

 from the other. They are named Hudson, Frederick, Thick-joint, Shoe-string, 

 Thickset, Sweet-scented, and Oronoko. But although these are the principal, 

 yet there are a great many different species besides, with names peculiar 

 to the situations, settlements and neighbourhoods wherein they are produced ; 

 which it would be too tedious here to specify and particularise. The soil for 

 tobacco must be rich and strong ; the ground is prepared in the following man- 

 ner: — after being well broke up and by repeated working, either with the plough 

 or hand hoes, rendered soft, light, and mellow, the whole field is made into 

 hills, each to take up the space of three feet, and flattened at the top. 



In the first rains, which are here called seasons, after the vernal equinox, the 

 tobacco plants are carefully di'awn Avhile the ground is soft ; carried to the field 

 where they are to be planted, and one dropped upon every hill, which is done 

 by the negro children. The most skilful slaves then begin planting them, by 

 making a hole with their finger in each hill, inserting the plant with the tap- 

 root carefully placed straight down, and pressing the earth on each side of it. 

 This is continued as long as the ground is wet enough to enable the plants- 

 sufficiently grown to draw and set ; and it requires several different seasons, or 

 periods of rain, to enable them to complete planting their crop, which operation 

 is frequently not finished until July. 



After the plants have taken root, and begin to grow, the ground is carefully 

 weeded and worked, either with hand hoes or the plough, according as it will 

 admit. After the plants have considerably increased in bulk, and begin to shoot 

 up, the tops are pinched off, and only ten, twelve, or sixteen leaves left, ac- 

 cording to the quality of the tobacco and the soil. The worms, also, are care- 

 fully picked off and destroyed, of which there are two species that prey upon 

 tobacco. One is the ground wonn, which cuts it off just beneath the surface of 

 the earth ; this must be carefully looked for and trodden to death ; it is of a 

 dark brown color, and short. The other is a horn worm, some inches in length, 

 as thick as your little finger, of a vivid green color, with a number of pointed 

 excrescences or feelers from his head like horns. These devour the leaf, and 

 are always upon the plant. As it would be endless labor to keep their hands 

 constantly in search of them, it would be almost impossible to prevent their 

 eating up more than half the crop had it not been discovered that turkeys are 

 particularly dexterous at finding them, eat them up voraciously, and prefer 

 them to every other food. For this purpose every planter keeps a flock of tur- 

 keys, which he has driven into the tobacco grounds every day by a little negro 

 that can do nothing else ; these keep his tobacco more clear from horn worms 

 than all the hands he has got could do were they employed solely for that end. 

 When the tops are nipped off, a few plants are left untouched for seed. On the 

 plants that have been topped, young shoots are apt to spring out, which are 

 termed suckers, and are carefully and constantly broken off lest they should 

 draw too much of the noiirishment and substance from the leaves of the plant. 

 This operation is also performed from time to time, and is called " suckering 

 tobacco." For some time before it is ripe, or ready for cutting, the ground is 

 perfectly covered with leaves, which have increased to a prodigious size, and 

 then the plants are generally about three feet high. When it is ripe, a clammy 

 moisture or <5xudation comes forth upon the leaves, which appear, as it were, 

 ready to become spotted, and they are then of a great weight and substance. 

 The 'tobacco is cut when the sun is powerful, but not in the morning and 



