Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce Part 5

Most writers are of the opinion that this was in 1620, one of whom says "in the same year that the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, slaves landed in Virginia." Another writer says of the introduction of slave labor into the Plantations, "Is there not a probability that the vessel was under control of Argall, if not the ship Treasurer? If twenty negroes came in 1619, as alleged, their increase was very slow, for according to a census of 16th of February, 1624, there were but twenty-two then in the colony, distributed as follows: eleven at Flourdiew Hundred, three at James City, one at James Island, one at the plantation opposite James City, four at Warisquoyok, and two at Elizabeth City."

About the same time that "negars" landed in the colony, commenced the arrival of starving boys and girls picked up out of the streets of London. The "negars" are described as follows by an early writer of the colony.

"The negroes live in small cottages called quarters, in about six in a gang, under the direction or an overseer or baliff; who takes care that they tend such land as the owner allots and orders, upon which they raise Hogs and Cattle, plant Indian Corn (or maize) and Tobacco for the use of their Master; out of which the overseer has a dividend (or share) in proportion to the number of hands including himself; this with several privileges in his salary, and is an ample recompense for his pains, and encouragement of his industrious care, as to the labor, health, and provision of the negroes. The negroes are very numerous, some gentlemen having hundreds of them of all sorts, to whom they bring great profit; for the sake of which they are obliged to keep them well, and not overwork, starve, or famish them, besides other inducements to favor them, which is done in a great degree, to such especially that are laborious, careful, and honest; though indeed some Masters, careless of their own interest and reputation, are too cruel and negligent.

"The negroes are not only increased by fresh supplies from Africa and the West India Islands, but also are very prolific among themselves; and they that are born there talk good English, and effect our language, habits, and customs; and tho' they be naturally of a barbarous and cruel temper, yet are they kept under by severe discipline upon occasion, and by good laws are prevented from running away, injuring the English or neglecting their business. Their work (or chimerical hard slavery) is not very laborious; their greatest hardship consisting in that they and their posterity are not at their own liberty or disposal, but are the property of their owners; and when they are free they know not how to provide so well for themselves generally; neither did they live so plentifully nor (many of them) so easily in their own country where they are made slaves to one another, or taken captive by their enemies. Their work is to take care of the stock, and plant Corn, Tobacco, Fruits and which is not harder than thrashing, hedging, or ditching; besides, though they are out in the violent heat, wherein they delight, yet in wet or cold weather there is little occasion for their working in the fields, in which few will let them be abroad, lest by this means they might get sick or die, which would prove a great loss to their owners, a good Negroe being sometimes worth three (nay four) score pounds sterling, if he be a tradesmen; so that upon this (if upon no other account) they are obliged not to overwork them, but to clooth and feed them sufficiently, and take care of their health."

The planters, supplied with greater facilities for the work, now increased the size of their tobacco plantations, "taking up new ground" (clearing the land) and planting a much larger area. The first exportation of the colony's tobacco was brought into compet.i.tion with that of much finer flavor, which had acquired an established reputation long before the English began the culture of the plant in the New World. The Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese had long monopolized its culture and trade, and brought from St. Domingo, Jamaica, St.

Thomas, the Philippine Islands, West Florida, and various parts of South America, several varieties of tobacco of excellent quality, and which sold at an exorbitant price. On testing the tobacco grown by the London and Plymouth companies it was found to be sweet and mild in flavor, of a light color, and well adapted for smoking. On its first introduction into England it sold for 3s. per pound, but as its culture increased the price lessened, until it was sold at one-half this amount.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Destroying suckers.]

The planters, who at first cultivated small patches, now planted large fields of tobacco, and such was the greed for gain that some planters gathered a second crop upon the same field from the suckers left growing upon the parent stalk. Tatham[16] says in regard to it:--

[Footnote 16: Essay on Tobacco, London, 1800.]

"It has been customary in former ages to rear an inferior plant from the sucker which projects from the root after the cutting of an early plant; and thus a second crop has often been obtained from the same field by one and the same course of culture; and although this scion is of a sufficient quality for smoking, and might become preferred in the weaker kinds of snuff, it has been (I think very properly) thought eligible to prefer a prohibitory law, to a risk of imposition by means of similitude. The practice of cultivating suckers is on these accounts not only discountenanced as fraudulent, but the constables are strictly enjoyned _ex officio_ to make diligent search, and to employ the _posse commitatus_ in destroying such crops; a law indeed for which, to the credit of the Virginians, there is seldom occasion; yet some few instances have occurred, within my day, where the constables have very honorably carried it into execution in a manner truly exemplary, and productive of public good."

Fairholt says of the same subject:--

"It was sometimes the custom with planters to reset the suckers, and thus grow a double crop on one field, such conduct was disallowed; for the reason that the crop was inferior, and the more honest grower, who conscientiously cleared his plants, and gave them abundance of room to grow, was dishonestly competed with; and the first rate character of the Virginian crop prejudiced by the action."

Fairholt makes a mistake in speaking of the planter as re-setting the suckers, and his statement shows him to be entirely unacquainted with the habits of the plant. As soon as the plants are harvested, the stump of the plant remaining in the ground puts forth one or more vigorous suckers or shoots, which often in a good season grow almost as high as the parent stalk. In some tobacco-growing sections one or two crops of suckers are gathered besides the first crop.

The Creole planters in Louisiana are said to grow three crops in this manner, the first or parent crop and two growths of suckers. The quality of leaf, however, is greatly inferior, as it is small and thin and lacking in all the qualities necessary for a fine leaf. The planters now adopted new methods of culture, and cultivated several species of the plant known as Oronoko and little Frederick, although they did not fertilize the fields, even when the soil became impoverished, but simply took new fields for its culture.

Hugh Jones says of the kinds of tobacco grown in Virginia:--

"The land between the James and York rivers seemes nicely adapted for sweet scented tobacco; for 'tis observed that the goodness decreaseth the farther you go to the northward of the one, and the southward of the other; but this may be (I believe) attributed in some measure to the seed and management, as well as to the land and lat.i.tude: For on York river in a small tract of land called Diggens neck, which is poorer than a great deal of other land in the same lat.i.tude, by a particular seed and management, is made the famous crop known by the name of E Dees, remarkable for its mild taste and fine smell." He speaks of the planters and their plantations as follows:--"Neither the interests nor inclinations of the Virginians induces them to cohabit in towns: so that they are not forward in contributing their a.s.sistance towards the making of particular places, every plantation affording the owner the provision of a little market; wherefore they most commonly build upon some convenient spot or neck of land in their own plantation, though towns are laid out and established in each county.

"The whole country is a perfect forest, except where the woods are cleared for plantations, and old fields, and where have been formerly Indian towns, and poisoned fields and meadows, where the timber has been burnt down in fire hunting and otherwise; and about the creeks and rivers are large rank mora.s.ses or marshes, and up the country are poor savannahs. The gentlemen's seats are of late built for the most part of good brick, and many of timber very handsome, commodious, and capacious; and likewise the common planters live in pretty timber houses, neater than the farm houses are generally in England: With timber also are built houses for the overseers and out-houses; among which is the kitchen apart from the dwelling house, because of the smell of hot victuals, offensive in hot weather.

"The habits, life, customs, computations of the Virginians, are much the same as about London, which they esteem their home; and for the most part have contemptible notions of England, and wrong sentiments of Bristol, and the other out-posts, which they entertain from seeing and hearing the common dealers, sailors, and servants that come from those towns, and the country places in England and Scotland, whose language and manners are strange to them; for the planters and even the native negroes generally talk good English without idiom and tone, and can discourse handsomely upon most common subjects: and conversing with persons belonging to trade and navigation from London, for the most part they are much civilized, and wear the best of clothes according to their station; nay, sometimes too good for their circ.u.mstances, being for the generality, comely handsome persons of good features and fine complexions (if they take care) of good manners and address.

"They are not very easily persuaded to the improvement of useful inventions (except a few, such as sawing mills) neither are they great encouragers of manufactures, because of the trouble and certain expense in attempts of this kind, with uncertain prospect of gain; whereas by their staple commodity, tobacco, they are certain to get a plentiful provision; nay, often very great estates. Upon this account they think it folly to take off their hands (or negroes) and employ their care and time about anything that may make them lessen their crop of tobacco. So that though they are apt to learn, yet they are fond of and will follow their own ways, humors and notions, being not easily brought to new projects and schemes; so that I question if they would have been improved upon by the Mississippi or South sea, or any other such monstrous bubbles. The common planters leading easy lives without much labor, or any manly exercise, except horse-racing, nor diversion, except c.o.c.k-fighting, in which some greatly delight.

"This easy way of living, and the heat of the summer, makes some very lazy, who are then said to be climate-struck. They are such lovers of riding, that almost every ordinary person keeps a horse; and I have known some spend the morning in ranging several miles in the woods to find and catch their horses to ride only two or three miles to the Church, to the Court-House or to a Horse-Race, where they generally appoint to meet upon business; and are more certain of finding those that they want to speak or deal with, than at their home. No people can entertain their friends with better cheer and welcome; and stranger and traveler is here treated in the most free, plentiful, and hospitable manner; so that a few Inns or Ordinaries on the road are sufficient."

This is no doubt a correct picture of the early planters of Virginia.

Many of them became the owners of large plantations and all those who were successful growers of tobacco became wealthy in proportion to the quality of leaf produced.

The merchants, factors or store-keepers bought up the tobacco of the planters paying in goods or "current Spanish money, or with sterling bills payable in Great Britain." At first the cultivation of tobacco by the colony was confined to Jamestown and the immediate vicinity, but as the colony increased and the country became more densely populated, plantations were laid out in the various counties and a large quant.i.ty was produced some ways from the great center Jamestown; accordingly various methods were adopted to get the tobacco to market, some of which was sent by boats or canoes down the rivers, while some was conveyed in carts and wagons while another method was by rolling in hoops.

Tatham in his interesting work on tobacco, gives the following description of the method:

"I believe rolling tobacco the distance of many hundred miles, is a mode of conveyance peculiar to Virginia; and for which the early population of that country deserve a very handsome credit. Necessity (that very prolific mother of invention), first suggested the idea of rolling by hand; time and experience have led to the introduction of horses, and have ripened human skill, in this kind of carriage, to a decree of perfection which merits the adoption of the mother country, but which will be better explained under the next head of this subject.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Carrying tobacco to market.]

"The hogsheads, which are designed to be rolled in common hoops, are made closer in the joints than if they were intended for the wagon; and are plentifully hooped with strong hickory hoops (which is the toughest kind of wood), with the bark upon them, which remains for some distance a protection against the stones. Two hickory saplings are affixed to the hogshead, for shafts by boring an auger-hole through them to receive the gudgeons or pivots, in the manner of a field rolling-stone; and these receive pins of wood, square tapered points, which are admitted through square mortises made central in the heading, and driven a considerable depth into the solid tobacco. Upon the hind part of these shafts, between the horses and the hogshead, a few light planks are nailed, and a kind of little cart body is constructed of a sufficient size to contain a bag or two of provender and provision, together with an axe, and such other tools as may be needed upon the road, in case of accident. In this manner they set out to the inspection in companies, very often joining society with the wagons, and always pursuing the same method of encamping."

The methods of making the plant bed, cultivating and harvesting, by the early planters may be interesting to all growers of the plant and are here described as showing the progress made in cutting tobacco from that time until now.

"In spring red seed, in preference to the white, is put into a clean pot; milk or stale beer is poured upon it, and it is left for two or three days in this state; it is then mixed with a quant.i.ty of fine fat earth, and set aside in a hot chamber, till the seeds begin to put out shoots. They are then sown in a hot-bed. When the young plants have grown to a finger's length, they are taken up between the fifteenth and twenty-second of May, and planted in ground that has been previously well manured with the dung of doves or swine. They are placed at square distances of one and a half-foot from one another. In dry weather, they are now to be watered with lukewarm water softly showered upon them, between sunset and twilight. When these plants are full two feet high, the top of the stems are broken off, to make the leaves grow thicker and broader. Here and there are left a few plants without having their tops broken off, in order that they may afford seeds for another year. Throughout the summer the other plants are from time to time, pruned at the top, and the whole field is carefully weeded to make the growth of the leaf so much the more vigorous.

"In the month of September, from the sixteenth day, and between the hours of ten in the morning and four in the afternoon, the best leaves are to be taken off. It is more advantageous to pluck the leaves when they are dry than when they are moist. When plucked they are to be immediately brought home, and hung upon cords within the house to dry, in as full exposure as is possible to the influence of the sun and air; but so as to receive no rain. In this exposure they remain till the months of March and April following; when they are to be put up in bundles, and conveyed to the store-house, in which they may be kept, that they may be there till more perfectly dried by a moderate heat. Within eight days they must be removed to a different place, where they are to be sparingly sprinkled with salt water, and left till the leaves shall be no longer warm to the 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."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Enriching plant-bed.]

In Maryland they formerly prepared the land for a plant-bed by burning upon it a great quant.i.ty of brush-wood, 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 the early Dutch settlers and in 1638 "had become a staple production." In 1639 "from Virginia numbers of persons whose terms of service had expired, were attracted to Manhattan, where they introduced improved modes of cultivating tobacco." Van Twiller was himself a grower of the plant and had his tobacco farm at Greenwich. Soon after its cultivation began it was subjected to Excise; and regulations were published to check the abuses which injured "the high name" it had gained in foreign countries.[17]

[Footnote 17: Jacob van Churler and David Provoost were appointed inspectors of the new staple tobacco. "In 1652 the commonalty at Manhattan was informed that, to show their good intentions, the Amsterdam directors had determined to take off the export duty of tobacco."]

Wailes says of the early cultivation of tobacco in Mississippi:

"When the country came under the dominion of Spain, a market was opened in New Orleans; a trade in tobacco was established, and a fixed and remunerating price was paid for it, delivered at the king's warehouses. Tobacco thus became the first marketable staple production of Mississippi."[18]

[Footnote 18: In 1783 Mr. Wm. Dunbar writes: "The soil of Natchez is particularly favorable for tobacco and there are overseers there, who will almost engage to produce you between two and three hogsheads to the hand besides provisions."]

An English writer has the following account of the culture of tobacco in Louisiana by the French:

"Tobacco is another plant indigenous to this part of America; the French colonists cultivated it with such success that had they received any encouragement from their government they might soon have rivalled Virginia and Maryland; but instead of this they were taxed heavily for cultivating it, by duties laid on the trade; what they produced was of so excellent a quality, as to sell some at five shillings a pound. There is one advantage in this culture here which ought not to be forgotten; in Louisiana the French planters after the tobacco is cut, weeded and cleaned the ground on which it grew the roots, push forth fresh shoots, which are managed in the same manner as the first crop. By this means a second crop is made on the same ground, and sometimes a third. These seconds indeed, as they are called, do not usually grow so high as the first plant, but notwithstanding they make very good tobacco."

During the reign of the Stuarts, the plant was first cultivated in New England but only in small quant.i.ties[19] and used solely for smoking.

About 1835 the plant received more attention from the farmers living in the Connecticut valley containing some of the finest tobacco land in the country. They found by repeated trials that the soil was well adapted to the production of a finer leaf tobacco than any they had ever seen. At this time Kentucky and Havana tobacco were used in the manufacture of cigars, but on testing American tobacco or as it is now known "Connecticut seed leaf" it was found to make the finest wrappers yet produced, and consequently the best looking cigars. From that time its reputation has kept pace with its cultivation, until it now enjoys a world wide popularity. As a wrapping tobacco it towers far above the seed products of other states and can never have a successful compet.i.tor in the other varieties now cultivated in the Middle and Western States. Doubtless America furnishes the finest varieties of the plant now cultivated, suited for all kinds of manufacturing, and adapted to all the various forms in which it is used.

[Footnote 19: "Every farmer plants a quant.i.ty of tobacco near his house in proportion to the size of his family.

It is likewise very necessary that they should plant tobacco, because it is so universally smoked by the common people,"--_Kalm's travels in North America_, 1772.]

The great diversity of soil and climate renders this probable while actual experiments and improved methods of culture have demonstrated it to a certainty. Thousands of hogsheads, cases, and bales are annually shipped to all parts of the world and the demand for American tobacco is greater than for the varieties grown in the Old World. More than two hundred and fifty years have pa.s.sed since the London and Plymouth Companies began its cultivation in the Old Dominion, and on the same soil where the red man grew his "uppowac." Virginia leaf still continues to flourish, and to-day it is the great agricultural product of the State.

From a small beginning, like the plant itself it has developed into a great and increasing industry and its culture become a source of wealth unprecedented in agricultural history. Could the sapient James I. and his successors the Stuarts, now look upon this cherished production of the world, they would discover a commercial prosperity connected with those nations which have fostered and encouraged its growth far in advance of those who have frowned upon the plant and prohibited or hindered its cultivation. Saint Pierre alluding to the beneficence of nature and of the folly and cruelty of man as contrasted says:

"When the princes of Europe went Gospel in hand, to lay waste Asia, they brought back the plague, the leprosy and the small-pox, but nature showed to a Dervish the coffee tree in the mountains of Yemen, and at the moment when nature brought curses on us through the Crusaders, it brought delights to us through the cup of a Mohammedan Monk.

The descendants of those princes took possession of America, and transmitted to us by this conquest, an inexhaustible succession of wars and maladies. While they were exterminating the inhabitants of America with cannon, a Carib invited sailors to smoke his Calumet as a signal of peace. The perfume of the tobacco vanquished their torments and their troubles, and the use of tobacco was spread all over the earth. While the afflictions of the two worlds came from artillery, which kings call their last resort, the consolations of civilized nations flowed from the pipe of a savage."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Shipping tobacco.]

It seems hardly possible to draw a more graphic picture of the blessings diffused by the balmy plant, than that just given. Its peculiar charms and soothing influence are well calculated to inspire in the breast of man, feelings of peace and happiness, rather than elements of discord and strife. The pipe of a king burns not more freely the shreds of the plant, than it does the last remnant of hostile feelings and the recollections of bitter wrongs; while the snuff-box of the diplomat contains the precious dust that has soothed the fierce hatred of rival houses and cemented the divided factions of a tottering throne.

CHAPTER IV.

TOBACCO IN EUROPE.