Just here I am minded to set down that which the girl Pocahontas told
us concerning the raising of tobacco, and it is well she spent the time
needed to instruct us, for since then I have seen the people in this new
world of Virginia getting more money from the tobacco plant, than they
could have gained even though Captain Newport's yellow sand had been
veritable gold.
You must know that the seed of tobacco is even smaller than grains of
powder, and the Indians usually plant it in April. Within a month it
springs up, each tiny plant having two or four leaves, and one month
later it is transplanted in little hillocks, set about the same distance
apart as are our hills of Indian corn.
Two or three times during the season the plants have to be hoed and
weeded, while the sickly leaves, which peep out from the body of the
stock, must be plucked off.
If the plant grows too fast, which is to say, if it is like to get
its full size before harvest time, the tops are cut to make it more
backward.
About the middle of September it is reaped, stripped of its leaves, and
tied in small bunches; these are hung under a shelter so that the dew
may not come to them, until they are cured the same as hay.
Having thus been dried, and there must be no suspicion of moisture
about, else they will mold, the whole is packed into hogsheads.
I have lived to see the days go by since the girl Pocahontas showed
Nathaniel and me how to cultivate the weed, until the greatest wealth
which Virginia can produce comes from this same tobacco, which, Master
Hunt says, not only induces filthiness in those who use it, but works
grievous injury to the body.