TOBACCO PLANTERS AND PLANTATIONS.
The grounds selected for the cultivation of tobacco are called by
various names even in the same countries. Thus in the Connecticut
Valley, such lands are called tobacco fields, at the South they are
known as tobacco plantations, while in Cuba they are called Vegas or
tobacco farms. In Cuba almost the entire tobacco farm is planted to
tobacco while at the South and in New England this is rarely the case
unless the plantations or tobacco farms are small and contain but a
few acres. In the Connecticut Valley and more especially along the
banks of the Connecticut River, where the farms are frequently small,
this is sometimes the case but farther removed from the river, where
the farms are much larger but a few acres of the best land is used for
this purpose.
In the Connecticut Valley the tobacco fields average from one to forty
acres, rarely exceeding the latter and indeed seldom including as
large an area. The average size of tobacco fields is about five
acres--sometimes all in one lot but oftener divided into several small
pieces on various parts of the farm.
The Connecticut planter is deeply interested in the plant and gives it
his undivided attention from seed-sowing until it is sold to the
speculator or manufacturer. All other crops in his opinion are of but
little importance compared with the great New England product, one
crop is frequently not off his hands before he is preparing for
another. The Connecticut planter stands first in the rank of tobacco
growers; he is thoroughly acquainted with the nature of the plant and
knows just what land to select and what kind of fertilizers to apply.
He has reduced the cultivation to almost an exact science and can
obtain (the season being favorable) the color most desirable. He has
thoroughly tested all kinds of fertilizers, and knows just what kinds
will produce the various shades of color as well as the desired
texture and size of leaf. No other tobacco planter so thoroughly
understands the methods of curing, sweating and doing up the crop, and
he takes no little pride in showing his crop to the buyer.
[Illustration: Connecticut tobacco field.]
It is his aim to obtain not only the best leaf for a cigar-wrapper but
also a tobacco of the finest possible flavor; hence he tries the
principal varieties grown in Cuba, Brazil and other countries in order
to judge of their quality and whether they can be cultivated with
profit on his lands. He has the best constructed sheds for hanging and
curing and the latest and most improved agricultural implements for
the cultivation of the plants. The greatest pains are taken in
securing the crop and harvesting and handling the plants without
injuring the leaves. The tobacco fields are kept in the best possible
condition, no weeds or grass is allowed to grow and the entire
surface is as free from stones as a lawn. He usually, if his farm is
small, plants the same field year after year, securing a much finer
leaf and by yearly manuring keeping the ground fertile and in good
condition. When the tobacco is stripped the utmost care is taken to
assort the leaves and he frequently shades or assorts the colors,
obtaining fancy prices for such "selections."
The Connecticut grower is well acquainted with the different soils,
and is able to judge with considerable accuracy in regard to selecting
the right fields for tobacco. The warmest land is chosen--mellow and
free from stones or shaded by trees and prepared as if for a garden.
All of the improved methods of obtaining early plants as well as
transplanting, he adopts, and in spite of early freezing, is generally
able to outwit Jack Frost, and secure the plants before this great foe
of the weed ravages the fields. It may safely be said of the
Connecticut planter that he secures more even crops than any other
grower of the plant, and obtains the finest colored leaf for cigar
wrappers.
The growers are thoroughly informed as regards the prices, and
although the buyers may steal suddenly upon them, are generally
prepared to "set" a price upon their crops. Some refuse to sell on the
poles, or even after it is stripped, preferring to pack their tobacco
until it has passed through the sweat, when larger prices are
obtained. Many growers not only pack their own crop, but buy up that
of others, thus acting as both producer and buyer. During the growing
of the crop, and particularly after it has been cured and stripped,
the growers congregate together, and talk over the condition of the
crop and the prices likely to be realized. Sometimes they form an
association or club, agreeing to "hold" the tobacco for satisfactory
prices, and frequently employing an agent to sell the crop. Many of
the tobacco fields or farms in the Connecticut valley are very
valuable, especially those near large cities and means of
transportation; such lands often selling for one thousand dollars per
acre.
The finest tobacco lands in the Connecticut valley are located in
the vicinity of Hartford about fifty miles from Long Island Sound.
These lands are near enough to the sound to get the salts in the
atmosphere from the south winds that blow up the valley in the precise
amount which the plant needs. Not much farther north does the
atmosphere possess this peculiar quality, while lower down the river
the salt air is too strong for the plant, and the leaves in
consequence are thick and harsh. Fine tobacco leaves can be
manufactured as well as fine broadcloth or costly silks. These results
depend in a great manner upon the proper soil and the fertilizers,
applied together with the most thorough cultivation of the plants. The
soil of our best Connecticut tobacco fields is alluvial, varying in
composition from a heavy sandy loam to a light one containing very
little clay.
For the past few years light soil has been preferred for the tobacco
field, on account of the demand for light colored leaf. The soil can
hardly be too light when leaf of a light cinnamon color is desired; as
the color of all kinds of tobacco depends upon the soil and the
fertilizers used.
A quarter of a century since Havana tobacco commanded very high
prices, both in this country and in Europe. It burnt freely and
purely. The Cuban planters, although getting rich on the ordinary
crops, were not satisfied with their gains, and attempted to increase
their crops by the use of guano and artificial fertilizers. They
secured heavier crops, but the quality became poorer. The prices fell
off and the planters did not realize as much for their crops as
formerly, although the growth was larger. About this time Connecticut
seed leaf became known as a cigar wrapper, and in a short time took
the lead for this purpose, as it still continues to. It cured finely,
burnt white and free, and in a short time brought high prices. The
profit realized from its growth led some Connecticut growers into the
same mistake as it did the Cuban planters, when they, by misguided
culture, nearly ruined their crops and injured the reputation of Cuban
tobacco.
Artificial fertilizers and strong manure produce a leaf larger and
heavier, but their effect on the character of the leaf is injurious,
the salts destroying its fine qualities, so that it sweats and cures
poorly, and compared with the finest leaf burns dark and emits a rank
and unpleasant odor.
The Connecticut tobacco grower requires considerable capital when
engaged extensively in the business, as ordinarily he buys large
quantities of fertilizers and requires many hands to cultivate the
crop. On the largest tobacco farms the sheds or "hanging houses" are
built near or in the field, and are sometimes very large, say two or
three hundred feet in length, and capable of holding the crop of from
five to ten acres.
[Illustration: Home of the Connecticut planter.]
His broad fields of the weed can usually be seen from his house and he
loves to show to visitors the plants growing in all their luxuriance,
or to sit on his piazza and call attention to their waving leaves and
graceful showy tops. Few tobacco-growers can discuss the relative
merits of the numerous varieties like the Connecticut planter, and he
is well acquainted not only with the various kinds grown in his own
country but also with those of others. Indeed you may often see
growing in his garden specimens of Cuban, Brazil or Latakia tobacco;
such is his love for all that pertains to this great tropical plant.
He considers it one of the greatest of all the vegetable products and
never tires of lauding the plant and its use. He sincerely hates all
anti-tobaccoites and has a supreme disgust for the memory of King
James I. and all royal foes of the plant. He is, however, a man of
large and liberal views and bestows his favors with a princely hand.
If fortune frowns he may lessen his crop but never his attachment for
the plant. Amid all the cares and perplexities incident to life, he
puffs away and as the ashes drop from his cigar meditates upon the
probable future of tobacco growers and all users of the weed.
The Connecticut tobacco grower is in all respects a man of genuine
refinement and nobility of soul. He is always ready to give
information on his particular system of culture, and how he obtains
such large and fine crops. He is a good judge of leaf tobacco, and can
tell in a moment the quality of his famous variety. He is thoroughly
awake to modern improvements, and always willing to try new
implements, such as tobacco hangers or transplanters in his sheds or
fields. He is just the person one likes to meet, jovial and
good-natured; he naturally loves the plant he cultivates and uses it
freely; lighting his after-dinner cigar or evening pipe with a gusto
that is peculiar to the grower of tobacco everywhere. Indeed he is
hardly in a proper frame of mind to converse about tobacco until he
lights a cigar.
No other cultivator of the soil gains as many friends as the
tobacco-grower. His table is well supplied from the choicest his
larder affords and he cheerfully welcomes all to its side. He is the
friend of the poor and the companion of the rich. No meanness or low
chicanery is his. His attachment for home, friends, and country is as
firm and strong as for the plant he cultivates.
Olmsted in his work "The Seaboard Slave States" gives the following
description of a Virginia plantation:
[Illustration: Negro quarters.]
"Half an hour after this I arrived at the negro quarters--a
little hamlet of ten or twelve small and dilapidated cabins.
Just beyond them was a plain farm gate at which several
negroes were standing; one of them, a well-made man, with an
intelligent countenance and prompt manner, directed me how
to find my way to his owner's house. It was still nearly a
mile distant; and yet, until I arrived in its immediate
vicinity, I saw no cultivated field, and but one clearing.
"In the edge of this clearing, a number of negroes, male and
female, lay stretched out upon the ground near a small
smoking charcoal pit. Their master afterwards informed me
that they were burning charcoal for the plantation
blacksmith, using the time allowed them for holidays--from
Christmas to New Years--to earn a little money for
themselves in this way. He paid them by the bushel for it.
When I said that I supposed he allowed them to take what
wood they chose for this purpose, he replied that he had
five hundred acres covered with wood, which he would be very
glad to have any one burn, or clear off in any way. Cannot
some Yankee contrive a method of concentrating some of the
valuable properties of this old field pine, so that they may
be profitably brought into use in more cultivated regions?
Charcoal is now brought from Virginia; but when made from
pine it is not very valuable, and will only bear
transportation from the banks of the navigable rivers whence
it can be shipped, at one movement to New York. Turpentine
does not flow in sufficient quantity from this variety of
the pine to be profitably collected, and for lumber it is of
very small value.
[Illustration: The planter's home.]
"Mr. W.'s house was an old family mansion, which he had
himself remodeled in the Grecian style, and furnished with a
large wooden portico. An oak forest had originally occupied
the ground where it stood; but this having been cleared and
the soil worn out in cultivation by the previous
proprietors, pine woods now surrounded it in every
direction; a square of a few acres only being kept clear
immediately about it. A number of the old oaks still stood
in the rear of the house, and, until Mr. W. commenced his
improvements, there had been some in its front. These,
however, he had cut away, as interfering with the symmetry
of his grounds, and in place of them had ailanthus trees in
parallel rows.
"On three sides of the outer part of the cleared square
there was a row of large and comfortable-looking negro
quarters, stables, tobacco-houses, and other offices, built
of logs. Mr. W. was one of the few large planters, of his
vicinity, who still made the culture of tobacco their
principal business. He said there was a general prejudice
against tobacco, in all the tide water regions of the State,
because it was through the culture of tobacco that the once
fertile soil had been impoverished; but he did not believe
that, at the present value of negroes, their labor could be
applied to the culture of grain with any profit, except
under peculiarly favorable circumstances. Possibly the use
of guano might make wheat a paying crop, but he still
doubted. He had not used it, himself. Tobacco required fresh
land, and was rapidly exhausting, but it returned more
money, for the labor used upon it, than anything else;
enough more, in his opinion to pay for the wearing out of
the land. If he was well paid for it, he did not know why he
should not wear out his land. His tobacco-fields were nearly
all in a distant and lower part of his plantation; land
which had been neglected before his time, in a great
measure, because it had been sometimes flooded, and was,
much of the year, too wet for cultivation. He was draining
and clearing it, and it now brought good crops. He had had
an Irish gang draining for him, by contract. He thought a
negro could do twice as much work in a day as an Irishman.
He had not stood over them and seen them at work, but judged
entirely from the amount they accomplished: he thought a
good gang of negroes would have got on twice as fast. He was
sure they must have 'trifled' a great deal, or they would
have accomplished more than they had. He complained much of
their sprees and quarrels. I asked why he should employ
Irishmen, in preference to doing the work with his own
hands. It's dangerous work, (unhealthy!) and a negro's life
is too valuable to be risked at it. If a negro dies it's a
considerable loss, you know.' He afterwards said that his
negroes never worked so hard as to tire themselves--always
were lively, and ready to go off on a frolic at night. He
did not think they ever did half a fair day's work. They
could not be made to work hard: they never would lay out
their strength freely, and it was impossible to make them do
it. This is just what I have thought when I have seen slaves
at work--they seem to go through the motions of labor
without putting strength into them. They keep their powers
in reserve for their own use at night, perhaps.
"Mr. W. also said that he cultivated only the coarser and
lower-priced sorts of tobacco, because the finer sorts
required more pains-taking and discretion than it was
possible to make a large gang of negroes use. 'You can make
a nigger work,' be said, 'but you cannot make him think.'"
In speaking of the early tobacco culture of Virginia, he says:--
The light, rich mould resting on the sandy soil of Eastern
Virginia was exactly suited to the cultivation of tobacco,
and no better climate for this plant was to be found on the
globe. This had just been sufficiently proved, and a
suitable method of culture learned experimentally, when the
land was offered to individual proprietors by the king,
(James I.) Very little else was to be obtained from the soil
which would be of value to send to Europe, without an
application to it of a higher degree of art than the slaves,
or stupid, careless servants of the proprietors could
readily be forced to use. Although tobacco had been
introduced into England but a few years, an enormous number
of persons had initiated themselves in the appreciation of
its mysterious value.
"The king, having taken a violent prejudice against it,
though he saw no harm in the distillation of grain, had
forbidden that it should be cultivated in England. Virginia,
therefore, had every advantage to supply the demand.
Merchants and the super-cargoes of ships, arriving with
slaves from Africa, or manufactured goods, spirits, or other
luxuries from England, very gladly bartered them with the
planters for tobacco, but for nothing else. Tobacco,
therefore, stood for money, and the passion for raising it,
to the exclusion of everything else, became a mania, like
the 'California fever' of 1849.
"The culture being once established, there were many reasons
growing out of the social structure of the colony, which,
for more than a century, kept the industry of the Virginians
confined to this one staple. These reasons were chiefly the
difficulty of breaking the slaves, or training the
bond-servants to new methods of labor, the want of
enterprise or ingenuity of the proprietors to contrive other
profitable occupations for them, and the difficulty or
expense of distributing the guard or oversight, without
which it was impossible to get any work done at all, if the
laborers were separated, or worked in any other way than
side by side, in gangs, as in the tobacco-fields.
"Owing to these causes the planters kept on raising tobacco
with hardly sufficient intermission to provide sustenance,
though often, by reason of the excessive quantity raised,
scarcely anything could be got for it. Tobacco is not now
considered peculiarly and excessively exhaustive; in a
judicious rotation, especially as a preparation for wheat,
it is an admirable fallow crop, and, under a scientific
system of agriculture, it is grown with no continued
detriment to the soil. But in Virginia it was grown without
interruption or alternation, and the plantations rapidly
deteriorated in fertility. As they did so, the crops grew
smaller in proportion to the labor expended upon them; yet,
from the continued importation of laborers, the total crops
of the colony increased annually, and the market value fell
proportionately to the better supply.
"With smaller return for labor and lower prices, the
planters soon found themselves bankrupt, instead of nabobs.
How could they help themselves? Only by forcing the
merchants to pay them higher prices. But how to do that,
when every planter had his crop pledged in advance, and was
obliged to hurry it off at any price he could get for it, in
order to pay for his food, and drink, and clothing, and to
keep his head above water at credit for the following year.
The crop supplied more tobacco than was needed, but no one
man would cease to plant it, or lessen his crop for the
general good. Then it was agreed all men must be made to do
so, and the colonial legislature was called upon to make
them.
"Acts were accordingly passed to prevent any planter from
cultivating more than a certain number of plants to each
hand he employed in labor, and prescribing the number of
leaves which might be permitted to ripen upon each plant
permitted to be grown. An inspection of all tobacco, after
it had been prepared for market, was decreed, and the
inspectors were bound by oath, after having rejected all of
inferior quality, to divide the good into two equal parts,
and then to burn and destroy one of them. Thus, it was
expected the quantity of tobacco offered for sale would be
so small that merchants would be glad to pay better prices
for it, and the planters would be relieved of their
embarrassment."
Mrs. M. P. Handy gives the following interesting sketch, entitled "On
the Tobacco Plantation":--
[Illustration: "Burning the patch."]
"Riding through Southside, Virginia, any warm, bright
winter's day after Christmas, the stranger may be startled
to see a dense column of smoke rising from the forest
beyond. He anxiously inquires of the first person he
meets--probably a negro--if the woods are on fire. Cuffee
shows his white teeth in a grin that is half amusement, half
contempt, as he answers: 'No, sar, deys jis burnin' a
plant-patch.' For this is the first step in tobacco-culture.
"A sunny, sheltered spot on the southern slope of a hill is
selected, one protected from northern winds by the
surrounding forest, but open to the sun in front, and here
the hot-bed for the reception of the seed is prepared. All
growth is felled within the area needed, large dead logs are
dragged and heaped on the ground as for a holocaust, the
whole ignited, and the fire kept up until nothing is left of
the immense wood-heap but circles of the smoldering ashes.
These are afterward carefully plowed in; the soil,
fertilized still further, if need be, is harrowed and
prepared as though for a garden-bed, and the small brown
seed sown, from which is to spring the most widely-used of
man's useless luxuries. Later, when the spring fairly opens,
and the young plants in this primitive hot-bed are large and
strong enough to bear transplanting, the Virginian draws
them, as the New Englander does his cabbages, and plants
them in like manner, in hills from two to four feet apart
each way. Lucky is he whose plant-bed has escaped the fly,
the first enemy of the precious weed. Its attacks are made
upon it in the first stage of its existence, and are more
fatal, because less easily prevented, than those of the
tobacco-worm, that scourge, _par excellence_, of the tobacco
crop. Farmers often lose their entire stock of plants, and
are forced to send miles to beg or buy of a more fortunate
planter. Freshly-cleared land--'new ground,' as the negroes
call it--makes the best tobacco-field, and on this and the
rich lowlands throughout Southside is raised the staple
known through the world as James River tobacco.
"On this crop the planter lavishes his choicest fertilizers;
for the ranker the growth, the longer and larger the leaf,
the greater is the value thereof, though the manufacturers
complain bitterly of the free use of guano, which, they say,
destroys the resinous gum on which the value of the leaf
depends. Once set, the young plant must contend, not only
with the ordinary risk of transplanting, but the cut-worm is
now to be dreaded. Working underground, it severs the stem
just above the root, and the first intimation of its
presence is the prone and drooping plant. For this there is
no remedy, except to plant and replant, until the tobacco
itself kills the worm. In one instance, which came under our
observation, a single field was replanted six times before
the planter succeeded in getting 'a good stand,' as they
call it on the plantations; but this was an extreme case.
[Illustration: Stringing the primings.]
"When the plants are fairly started in their growth, the
planter tops and primes them, processes performed, the first
by pinching off the top bud, which would else run to seed,
and the second by removing the lower leaves of each plant,
leaving bare a space of some inches near the ground, and
retaining from six to a dozen stout, well-formed leaves on
each stem, according to the promise of the soil and season,
and these leaves form the crop. The rejected lower leaves or
primings, in the days of slavery, formed one of the
mistress' perquisites and were carefully collected by the
'house-gang,' as the force was styled, strung on small
sharp sticks like exaggerated meat-skewers, and cured, first
in the sun, afterwards in the barn, often placing a pretty
penny in her private purse. Now when all labor must be paid
for in money, they are not worth collecting, and, except
when some thrifty freedman has a large family which he
wishes to turn to account, are left to wither where they
fall.
"There is absolutely no rest on a large tobacco plantation,
one step following another in the cultivation of the
troublesome weed--the last year's crop is rarely shipped to
market before the seed must be sown for the next--and
planting and replanting, topping and priming, suckering and
worming, crowd on each other through all the summer months.
Withal the ground must be rigidly kept free from grass and
weeds, and after the plants have attained any size this must
be done by hoe; horse and plow would break and bruise the
brittle leaves.
"'Suckering' is performed by removing every leaf-bud which
the plant throws out after the priming (and topping), thus
retaining all its sap and strength for the development of
the leaves already formed, and this must be done again and
again through the whole season. Worming is still more
tedious and unremitting. In the animal kingdom there are
three creatures, and three only, to whom tobacco is not
poisonous--man, a goat found among the Andes, and the
tobacco-worm. This last is a long, smooth-skinned worm, its
body formed of successive knobs or rings, furnished each
with a pair of legs, large prominent eyes, and is in color
as green as the leaf upon which it feeds. It is found only
on the under side of the leaves, every one of which must be
carefully lifted and examined for its presence. Women make
better wormers than men, probably because they are more
patient and painstaking. When caught the worm is pulled
apart between the thumb and finger, for crushing it in the
soft mold of the carefully cultivated fields is impossible.
Carelessness in worming was an unpardonable offence in the
days of slavery, and was frequently punished with great
severity. An occasional penalty on some plantations--very
few, in justice to Virginia planters be it said--was to
compel the delinquent wormer to bite in two the disgusting
worm discovered in his or her row by the lynx-eyed overseer.
Valuable coadjutors in this work are the housewife's flock
of turkeys, which are allowed the range of the tobacco lots
near the house, and which destroy the worms by scores. The
moth, whose egg produces these larvæ, is a large white
miller of unusual size and prolificness. Liberal and kind
masters would frequently offer the negro children a reward
for every miller captured, and many were the pennies won in
this way. One of these insects, placed one evening under an
inverted tumbler, was found next morning to have deposited
over two hundred eggs on the glass.
[Illustration: Worming.]
"As the plant matures the leaves grow heavy, and, thick with
gum, droop gracefully over from the plant. Then as they
ripen, one by one the plants are cut, some inches below the
first leaves, with short stout knives,--scythe or reaper is
useless here,--and hung, heads down, on scaffolds, in the
open air, till ready to be taken to the barn. A Virginia
tobacco-barn is totally unlike any other building under the
sun. Square as to the ground plan, its height is usually
twice its width and length. In the center of the bare
earthen floor is the trench for firing; around the sides
runs a raised platform for placing the leaves in bulk; and,
commencing at a safe distance from the fire, up to the top
of the tall building, reach beams stretching across for the
reception of the tobacco-sticks, thick pine laths, from
which are suspended the heavy plants. Safely housed and
beyond all danger of the frost, whose slightest touch is
sufficient to blacken and destroy it, the crop is now ready
for firing, and through the late autumn days blue clouds of
smoke hover over and around the steep roofs of the tall
tobacco-barns. A stranger might suppose the buildings on
fire, but not a blaze is within, the object here, as in
bacon-curing, being _smoke_, not _fire_.
"For this the old field-pine is eschewed, and the planter
draws on his stock of oak and hickory-trees. Many use
sassafras and sweet gum in preference to all other woods for
this purpose, under the impression that they improve the
flavor of the tobacco-leaf. When the leaves, fully cured,
have taken the rich brown hue of the tobacco of commerce, so
unlike the deep green of the growing plant that a person
familiar with the one would never recognize the other as the
same plant, the planter must fold his hands and wait until
they are in condition for what is technically known as
striking, i. e., taking down from the rafters on which they
are suspended. Touch the tobacco when too dry and it
crumbles, disturb it when too high or damp, and its value
for shipping is materially lessened, while if handled in too
cold weather it becomes harsh. But there comes a mild damp
spell, and the watchful planter seizing the right moment,
since tobacco, like time and tide, waits for no man, musters
all the force he can command for the work of stripping and
stemming. This done, the leaves are sorted and tied in
bundles, several being held in one hand, while around the
stalk-end of the cluster is wrapped another leaf, the loose
end of which is tucked through the center of the bundle.
Great care is taken in this operation not to break the leaf,
and oil or lard is freely used in the work. During this
process the crop is divided into the various grades of
commerce from 'long bright' leaf to 'lugs' the lowest grade
known to manufacturers. These last are not packed into
hogsheads, but are sent loose, and sold without the trouble
of prizing, in the nearest market-town.
"Shades imperceptible to a novice, serve to determine the
value of the leaf. As it varies in color, texture, and
length, so fluctuates its market price, and at least half
the battle lies in the manner in which the crop has been
handled in curing. From the mountainous counties of
South-western Virginia, Franklin, Henry, and Patrick, comes
all the rarest and the most valuable tobacco, 'fancy
wrappers' but these crops are smaller in proportion to those
raised along the lowlands of the rivers. This tobacco is
much lighter in color, much softer in texture, than the
ordinary staple, and is frequently as soft and fine as silk.
Some years ago a bonnet made of this tobacco was exhibited
at the Border Agricultural Fair, and had somewhat the
appearance of brown silk. Only one such plant have I ever
seen grown in Southside, and that, a bright golden brown,
and nearly two feet in length, was carefully preserved for
show on the parlor-mantel of the planter who raised it.
"After tying, the bundles are placed in bulk, and when again
'in order,' are 'prized' or packed into the hogsheads,--no
smoothly-planed and iron-hooped cask, by the way, but huge
pine structures very roughly made. The old machine for
prizing was a primitive affair, the upright beam through
which ran another at right angles, turning slightly on a
pivot, heavily weighted at one end, and used as a lever for
compressing the brown mass into the hogsheads. Now, most
well-to-do planters own a tobacco straightener and
screw-press, inventions which materially lessen the manual
labor of preparing the crop for market. Each hogshead is
branded with the name of the owner, and thus shipped to his
commission-merchant, when the hogshead is 'broken' by
tearing off a stave, thus exposing the strata of the bulk to
view. Of late years some planters have been guilty of
'nesting,' or placing prime leaf around the outer part and
an inferior article in the center of the hogshead.
"At a tobacco mart in Southside, occurred perhaps the only
instance of negro-selling since the establishment of the
Freedman's Bureau. At every town is a huge platform scale
for weighing wagon and load, deducting the weight of the
former from the united weight of both to find the quantity
of tobacco offered for sale. A small planter has brought a
lot of loose tobacco to market, which, being sold, was
weighed in this manner, and for which the purchaser was
about to pay, when a bystander quietly remarked, 'You forgot
to weigh the nigger.' An explanation followed, and the
tobacco, re-weighed, was found short 158 lbs., or the exact
weight of the colored driver, who had, unobserved, been
standing on the scales behind the cart while the first
weighing took place.
"Thirty years or more ago--before the Danville and Southside
Railroads were built--the tobacco was principally carried to
market on flat-boats, and the refrain to a favorite negro
song was:--
"'Oh, I'm gwine down to Town!
An' I'm gwine down to Town!
I'm gwine down to Richmond Town
To cayr my 'bacca down!'
"Then all along the rivers, at every landing, was a tobacco
warehouse, the ruins of some of which may still be seen.
With no crop has the Emancipation Act interfered so much as
with this, and the old tobacco planters will tell you with a
sigh that tobacco no longer yields them the profits it once
did: the manufacturers are the only people who make fortunes
on it now-a-days; $12 per hundred is the lowest price which
pays for the raising, and few crops average that now. Still
every farmer essays its culture, every freedman has his
email tobacco patch by his cabin door, and the Indian weed
is still the great staple of Eastern Virginia."
The first planters of tobacco at the West were the Ohioans, who began
its culture about fifty years ago. From the first they have taken much
interest in the plant, and as the result of many experiments not only
produce seed leaf, but the finest cutting leaf grown in this country.
The Ohio tobacco growers have shown a spirit of enterprise in this
direction that is as commendable as it is rare. While they have not
tested the great tropical varieties like their brother tobacco growers
of Connecticut, they have succeeded in producing a leaf for cutting
that is the admiration of the world. At first their experiments were
unsuccessful, and the early growers were ridiculed for entertaining
the belief that tobacco could be grown at the West. Yet despite all
objections and seeming failures, the growers continued its cultivation
until it has become one of the great products of the State. Of late
the Ohio growers have demonstrated that their soil is better adapted
for the finer grades of cutting leaf, than for seed leaf or even the
more common "cinnamon blotch."
The soil is rich, and an experience of half a century has at length
given them a thorough knowledge of the plant and the most successful
modes of cultivation. In appearance an Ohio tobacco field resembles
those of the Connecticut valley--the leaf is large, and though
coarser, cures down a dark rich brown, like "cinnamon blotch," or a
light yellow, the color of the famous "white tobacco." The Ohio
growers have taken much pains with the Ohio broad leaf, and have
produced a seed leaf tobacco that in many respects is a superior
wrapper for cigars. While it does not possess the fine texture of
Connecticut seed leaf it still has many good qualities, and with the
careful culture given it will doubtless become still finer as a leaf
tobacco, for wrapping cigars. But it is in the production of cutting
leaf that the Ohio growers take rank, and ere long will supply the
vast demand made upon them for their great cutting variety.
[Illustration: Ohio tobacco field.]
With a degree of pride peculiar to all tobacco growers, (when any new
variety has originated,) they point with no little egotism to their
fields of "white tobacco," and ask their fellow-growers of New England
to rival this "great plant." So successful have they been of late with
cutting leaf, that their fields yield them returns not inferior to
many of the choicest tobacco farms on the Connecticut River. The Ohio
growers have one advantage over earlier growers of the plant--their
land has not been cultivated as long as the famous tobacco lands of
the Connecticut valley, and does not require that thorough fertilizing
which is so necessary in New England. Still the tobacco field cannot
be too thoroughly prepared for the growth of tobacco, whether in the
tropics or in the more temperate regions.
In the curing of tobacco, the Ohio growers have but few equals, and no
superiors. At first, the complaint made by the buyers of Ohio tobacco
was, that "Ohio tobacco has the appearance of being too hard fired,
indeed so much so as to have the flavor of being baked." The early
culture of tobacco in the State attracted the attention of tobacco
buyers, especially those who had dealt largely in Maryland leaf, and
so much so, that one large firm issued a circular and sent to all the
prominent growers in the tobacco growing section giving instructions
in regard to its cultivation and management. We copy from one lying
before us, and dated 1842. It reads as follows:
"As tobacco is every
year becoming a more prominent article in your State, we
deem it of so much importance that we have had this circular
printed on the subject of its Cultivation and Management,
and take the liberty to address it to you. New ground
produces the finest and highest priced tobacco. The plants
should be set about 2 feet 9 inches or three feet apart,
which will give them sufficient air and sun to ripen, and
give the leaf a good body. It should be topped as soon as it
buttons, kept clear of suckers, and cut as soon as it is
ripe--if favorable weather, it will be fit for the house in
15 to twenty days after it is topped.
"When cut, let it remain until sufficiently lank to handle
without breaking; but it should be housed before it is
sun-killed, or much deadened, to prevent which, put it up in
small heaps, say as much as a man can carry, with the heads
to the sun, as soon as cut, and even then the top plants may
be too much deadened, unless soon removed to the house. If
sun-killed, it will not cure fine. The Maryland system is to
fire without flues, and when the precaution is taken to lay
planks or boards directly over the fire, accidents seldom
occur.
"Slow fires are kept up for the first four or five days
after the house is filled, so as to give it a moderate heat
throughout, until the Tobacco is generally yellow, then the
fires are raised or increased so as to kill the leaf and
stem in forty-eight hours or less. When cured on the stock,
as is done in Maryland, it can be better assorted, or the
different qualities more readily separated than when
stripped in the field and cured in the leaf. When stripping
and tying up in bundles, it should be assorted according to
the following classifications: 1st, Fine Yellow; 2d, Yellow;
3d, Spangled; 4th, Fine Red; 5th, Good Red; 6th, Brown and
Common. It is often put up as if there were but two or three
qualities, hence there is a great mixture of the several
sorts, which is a very serious disadvantage in selling, as
the purchaser generally values it at the price of the most
inferior in the sample.
"The process of curing unfired, or air-dried tobacco, is
similar to the above, except the firing; when so cured, it
is more difficult to condition, so as to make it keep; but
it generally sells quite as well. Planters should be very
careful to have their Tobacco in good dry condition when
they deliver it to the dealer or purchaser, as it is
all-important to him to receive it free from dampness or
moisture, which bruises it and injures its quality. We think
such management as directed above would raise the value of
Ohio tobacco as high as similar quality of Maryland."
[Illustration: Tobacco warehouse.]
As when first cultivated, the Ohio growers still select new land as
the best adapted for tobacco, though not as easy of cultivation. When
the tobacco growers are ready for preparing their "new ground" they
invite in their friends and neighbors, and the field is "grubbed" in a
short time. "Grubbing Day," with the young people, is an event of no
common interest; the farmers gather from the adjoining farms and with
mirth and muscle soon render the field fit for the "Indian herb." In
the evening, the planter's home is filled with the young people, bent
on having a right good time, and with "stripping the willow" and other
games, close the day if not the night in the most enjoyable manner.
Many of the country merchants take the tobacco of the growers when in
condition to handle, paying them (or at least a portion of it,) in
goods, or purchasing the tobacco as they do other merchandise. They
have large warehouses where they receive and pack the tobacco until
shipped to market. In the early Spring the growers take their tobacco
to the workhouses, where it is packed by the merchants who frequently
have a claim on the crop for advances made on the same.
Having given a description of the Connecticut, Virginia and Ohio
tobacco growers, we come now to the most extensive cultivators of
tobacco in America--the Kentuckians. With the exception of the
Virginians they are the oldest growers of the plant in the United
States,[65] and are confessedly among the most thorough cultivators of
the plant in the world. The soil of Kentucky is admirably adapted for
the great staple, and along the banks of the Green River may be seen
the largest tobacco fields in the world. The plant attains a large
size, and grows with a luxuriance common to all products grown in the
famous "blue grass" region.
[Footnote 65: Kentucky was originally a part of
Virginia.]
[Illustration: Kentucky tobacco plantation.]
The system adopted by the Kentucky growers is similar to that adopted
by all growers of cut tobacco, and the fine quality of Kentucky
"selections" has deservedly gained the leaf a reputation that must
place it in the front rank of American tobacco. The vast quantity
grown in the state is an evidence not only of the good quality of
Kentucky tobacco, but of the adaptation of the soil and of the method
of cultivation in use. As a cut tobacco, Kentucky-leaf is held in the
highest esteem, the exportation of the leaf to all parts of Europe
gaining for it a reputation hardly equaled by any Southern tobacco.
The system of cultivation is similar to that pursued by the Virginian,
and the same process of curing is also adopted.
The Kentucky growers generally succeed in getting a "good stand" and
when once the plants have commenced to grow they come forward with a
rapidity that is truly astonishing. The soil of Kentucky is well
adapted for the production of the largest varieties of tobacco as well
as the finest grades of cutting leaf. Much attention is paid to the
selection of soil, that the light standard of Kentucky leaf may be
further advanced. On the large plantations a vast amount of tobacco is
grown, in some instances equaling the entire product of some of the
tobacco-growing towns in the Connecticut Valley. The tobacco is packed
in hogsheads, each one containing twelve hundred pounds, the same as
in Virginia and Missouri.
The Kentucky planter prides himself on the superior quality of
tobacco, as well as his famous blooded stock. If there is anything
more remarkable than the high character of the latter, it must
certainly be the renowned plant which has given the wealthy planters
of Kentucky a national popularity among all cultivators of tobacco.
The Kentuckians are thorough in all of their methods of cultivation,
and with the first stock and tobacco farms in the country bid fair to
achieve still further honors as "tillers of the soil." Possessed of
the largest means, they have brought their farms up to a high state of
cultivation, and produce in their famous valleys the very finest of
Nature's products.
Kentucky planters are men of the largest endowments; Nature, in her
gifts to them has been most lavish, and the princely fortunes which
they have acquired shows how well they have benefited by her
munificence. In manners affable, and in benevolence unsurpassed, the
Kentucky planter gains the plaudits of all. He is polite to both
friend and foe, and possessed with all of that polished manner which
marks the true gentleman, and especially all growers of the "kingly
plant." Easy of approach, he has still that reserve that bids all
sycophants mark well their conduct and demeanor. On the plantation or
at the race, the Kentuckian is ever in his best mood for recreation
and enjoyment.
[Illustration: The Kentucky planter.]
His attachment for the horse has developed qualities of patience and
thoroughness that are shown elsewhere than on the "course." Benefiting
by years of training and study, the success that follows his efforts
shows at once that such talents are not confined to a single field of
operations. In many respects like the Virginia planter, they differ
somewhat in their taste in all that pertains to the turf and the
field. But we would not lose sight, among his many noble traits of
character, of that love of his State that pre-eminently characterizes
the Kentuckian. He is justly proud of her soil and of her sons, and
whether in the halls of Congress or on the field of carnage and blood,
fears not to maintain the honor and safety of the one and the other.
It is surprising to one acquainted with the growth of tobacco and the
value of the Southern States for its production that so small an area
of land is devoted to its culture in Georgia, Florida and Louisiana.
When owned by Spain, West Florida was noted for its tobacco, and
produced large quantities which were exported to Spain and France. The
soil of Florida is well adapted for tobacco, and the rich hummock
lands produce an excellent quality for cigars, not unlike Havana leaf.
Its cultivation has been tried in various parts of the State, but the
result has not warranted its cultivation to any great extent
excepting in Gadsden County where the plant flourishes as well as in
Cuba.
The seed used in Havana and the plant resembles it so closely that
even Cuban planters cannot distinguish it from that grown on the
island. The mode of cultivation is nearly the same, and the soil is
said to produce a leaf of tobacco similar to that of the celebrated
Vuelta de Albajo. Formerly the product was sent to New Orleans, and
the leaf was pronounced by some dealers to be bitter, but most of them
considered it valuable. The planter selects the high lands or
hummocks, the soil of which is light and rich for the tobacco field.
The plants are carefully drawn from the bed, and transplanted
afterwards. The mode of culture is to plow between the rows and hoe
the plants carefully.
A Florida tobacco field in appearance is not unlike a _vega_, or Cuba
tobacco field; the same luxuriant growth of the forest may be seen on
every hand, and the "queen of herbs" grows underneath or near the
fragrant Orange and the stately Magnolia. The soil of Gadsden County
is in some respects unlike that of the rest of the State in that there
is an entire absence of limestone, which is found elsewhere all
through Florida. The climate of the State is well adapted for the
growth of tobacco, and is less changeable on the Gulf side than along
the Atlantic coast.
Formerly larger crops were raised than now. Under the old _régime_
when on every plantation were a score or more of idle negro urchins, a
large portion of the labor could be performed by them, such as
worming, dropping the plants, and picking up the primings, while now
the labor has to be paid for in money or its equivalent. At this time,
the "wrapper leaf" was considered to be among the best for cigars, and
brought high prices. In the days of slavery, tobacco was considered to
be as profitable as the cotton crop, and good tobacco plantations were
considered to be the most valuable in the State.
[Illustration: Florida tobacco plantation.]
This peculiar tobacco region is without doubt capable, with proper
management, of producing a superior article for cigars, both wrappers
and fillers, and when grown on "new ground" the staple is exceedingly
fine. The leaf cures as rapidly, and is of as good color as in Cuba,
and in a favorable season and when harvested fully ripe, is destitute
of that bitter taste formerly ascribed to it. The plants grow large,
and have that smooth, shiny appearance peculiar to Havana tobacco, the
leaves growing erect, and frequently covered with "specks" or "white
rust," one of the best evidences of a fine flavored and a good-burning
tobacco. A Florida tobacco-grower gives the following account of the
plant:
"The Gadsden 'wrapper-leaf' was always in high repute, and
extensively used in the manufacture of cigars, being in
size, firmness, and texture fully equal to the best Cuba,
and far superior to the Connecticut seed-leaf. Where the
variety known as the Cuba filler has been tried, it has
succeeded finely in this county, possessing that delicate
and peculiar aroma so highly prized in the Havana cigars. We
need but the capital to make the most profitable crop that
is grown. It is a fact, that of all the counties of the
State, many of them abounding in the very finest soil,
Gadsden is the only one that has succeeded in making the
Cuba tobacco a staple market-crop. Prior to 1860 it rivaled
in net returns the great staple cotton, and from present
indications, it is about to resume its former status among
the great agricultural products of the country."
"Whether this success is attributable to any peculiarity in
the elements of the soil, I am not able to determine, but
this fact is worthy of note, that, except immediately on the
banks of the Apalachicola River, which forms the Western
boundary of the County, there is an entire absence of the
rotten limestone which so largely pervades the other
sections of the State. For the planter of limited means,
there is no crop so well suited to his condition as the Cuba
tobacco. To produce a given result there is a less area of
land required than is demanded for the production of any
other field crop. The cultivation, harvesting, and
preparation for market is simple, and the labor so light
that it may be participated in by every member of the
family, male and female, over six years of age. The growth
of the plant is so rapid, and its arrival at maturity so
quick, that it never interferes with any of the provision
crops, and rarely with a moderate cotton crop."
In Louisiana the tobacco plant flourishes well and grows as well and
as luxuriantly as sugar cane. Even along the banks of the Mississippi
the plants attain good size, and succeed as finely as in some of the
other parishes in the interior of the State. The Perique and Louisiana
tobacco are the principal varieties cultivated, and attain nearly the
size of Connecticut seed leaf. In St. James parish the soil seems well
adapted for Perique tobacco, and here it readily takes on that black
hue that is one of the peculiar features of this singular variety. In
Coddo parish tobacco is cultivated to some extent, but does not
produce a leaf equal to that grown in St. James Parish. The tobacco
grown in the Parishes of Bossier and Natchitoches is used chiefly by
the growers of the parishes and is fitted for both smoking and snuff.
The Louisiana planters have adopted the method of the French in doing
up their tobacco--twisting it in rolls, or as the French call them,
"Carrots." The planters of St. James Parish annually put up from ten
to fourteen thousand carrots of Perique, each carrot weighing about
four pounds.
Mr. Perique, from whom the tobacco takes its name, made many
improvements in the manner of preparing the tobacco for market, one
of which consisted in taking up the twisted lumps (after remaining in
press for six months), spreading them to fifteen or sixteen inches in
length and having completed four pounds in weight, rolling it into a
lump which retained its shape by means of a rope one-fourth inch in
diameter, tightly twisted around it. The labor in pressing and
twisting is entirely done by hand, and attended to with the most
scrupulous care.
[Illustration: Louisiana tobacco plantation.]
The Creole planters sometimes raise two, and even three crops on the
same field, two of them being the growths of suckers or shoots from
the parent stock or stump. The growers of Perique tobacco have tested
Havana seed, but can see but little difference between the product and
that from Virginia or Kentucky tobacco seed, while the growth is much
smaller. In color Louisiana tobacco is very dark, entirely different
from any other variety grown in the Mississippi valley.
Some few years since tobacco culture was introduced into California,
and the belief then entertained by those who planted the consoling
weed, that the state would soon become as famous for raising tobacco
as she now is for producing wheat and gold seem likely to be
realized. The soil and climate of California are admirably adapted for
tobacco. In the valleys the land is a deep alluvial loam, easily
worked, producing bountiful crops of the finest leaf tobacco. The
planters have experimented with several varieties, including Havana,
Florida, Latakia, Hungarian, Mexican, Virginia, Connecticut, Standard
and White leaf. Large crops are grown, especially of Florida tobacco,
which, with careful culture, produces two thousand five hundred pounds
of merchantable leaf to the acre. The planters get their Havana seed
from Cuba, preferring to do so rather than to risk the seed from their
own plants. At first they used home-grown seed and could not see any
serious deterioration or change in the quality of the tobacco, but a
singular change in the form of the leaf took place. That from
home-grown seed grew longer, and the veins or ribs, which in Havana
tobacco stand out at right angles from the leaf stalks took an acute
angle, and thus became longer and made up a greater part of the leaf.
Of Florida tobacco the home-grown seed comes true.
Tobacco is now being tested in the several counties in the State and
with every promise of success. Many of the ranches seem well adapted
for the plant and the planters are confident by their new process of
curing, of being able to produce an article equal to the best Havana
brand. The plants attain a remarkable size, and grow up like many
kinds of tropical vegetation, without much care being bestowed upon
them, although the plants are regularly cultivated and hoed. The
planters are not troubled with that foe of most tobacco fields, "the
worm." They attribute this in part to the excellence of their soil and
partly to the abundance of birds and yellow jackets. The planters do
not always "top" the Havana and do very little "suckering." If the
ground is rich, and free from weeds they let one of the suckers from
that root grow, and thus become almost as large and heavy as the
original plant. They believe that the soil is strong enough to bear
the plants and suckers, and that they get a better leaf and finer
quality without suckering.
In summer the roads are very dusty in California, and this dust is a
disadvantage to the tobacco planter. On some of the plantations double
rows of shade trees are planted along the main roads, and gravel is
spread on the interior roads; and to protect the fields of tobacco
from the high winds which sweep through the California valley, almonds
and cottonwoods are planted for wind-breaks in the fields.
Some of the planters employ Chinese to cultivate the plants, who are
very careful in hoeing and weeding the tobacco, living an apparently
jolly life in shanties near the fields. A witty California
correspondent of the _Tobacco Leaf_ writes concerning the early
cultivation of tobacco in that State:
"We are doing a great many other things in California now
besides raising grain, fruit, wine, wool, and gold. We are
doing a lively business in tobacco. Fifteen years ago I was
down East on one occasion when they were gathering the
tobacco crop--which goes to New York, and, by a process
equal to wine making, becomes Havana tobacco. It struck me
that this country was admirably adapted to its cultivation,
and I brought back some seed, which I gave to a friend
living on the bank of the Sacramento River, instructing him
to plant it as per direction given me. We sat down and
calculated the immense fortune we would make raising
tobacco, if the experiment was a success. A week later my
friend, who was an impatient sort of a fellow, wrote me just
a line--'No results.' I replied, and asked him if he
expected a crop of tobacco in seven days. A few weeks later
he wrote, 'Here she comes;' two weeks later, 'How big is the
stuff to be?' two weeks later, 'Not room for tobacco and me
too. Who shall quit?' I heard no more for a month and
thought I would go up and see it. I did so, and the
steamboat landed me at my friend's ranch. I could not see
the house, and hallooed. I heard an answer from the depths,
and then following a path, I found my friend swinging in a
hammock in the shade of a grove of tobacco trees. I desire
to maintain my reputation for truth and veracity, so
necessary to a correspondent, so I won't say how big or how
high those tobacco plants were; but my friend's hammock was
slung from them--and he was no feather-weight--the leaves
completely embowered the cottage. I congratulated him on the
results--such a grove and such a shade--and moreover I
said, 'You will be permanently rid of mosquitoes.' 'Will I!'
said he. 'Do you know that these gallinippers have learned
to chew already, and the habit is spreading so that all the
old he-fellows are coming down from Marysville to take a
hand.' I inquired if my friend had cured any or smoked any.
He pointed to a Manyanita pipe split open on the ground, and
said. 'Before it was real strong, some three weeks ago, I
tried a leaf in that pipe. Observe the result--busted it the
second whiff, and knocked me off the log I was sitting on.'
Such was the first experiment in tobacco raising in
California. But now they have learned the trick. They have
searched the State for the poorest and most barren soil,
and, having found it are cultivating a splendid article of
genuine Havana leaf tobacco, manufacturing cigars as good as
you get one time in twenty even in Havana, making several
brands of smoking tobacco, and, lastly, an article of
Louisiana perique, ('peruke' proper,) that any old smoker
would go into ecstasies over, fully equal, it is said to the
genuine old-fashioned article, and that is saying a good
deal. Now if we can supply the world with cigars and
tobacco, we have got a dead sure thing for the future, even
if gold gives out, grain fails and the pigs eat up all the
fruit. Your people who have been paying fifteen cents apiece
for genuine Havana cigars imported direct from--Connecticut,
should rejoice and join in an earnest _hooray!_"
In Mexico the tobacco plantations exhibit a diversity of scenery not
met with in other portions of America. The soil is well adapted for
the crop, and on many of the plantations in the Gulf States the plant
grows as finely as on any of the _vegas_ of Cuba. The Mexicans are
among the best cultivators of the plant in the world, and, like the
Turks, prefer its culture to that of any product grown. The plant is a
strong, vigorous grower, and ripens early, emitting an odor like that
of Havana tobacco. The climate is so favorable that from one to three
crops can be grown on the same field in one year, and yield a
bountiful harvest without seemingly impoverishing the soil.[66]
Transplanted in the summer or autumn, the plants grow through the
winter months, and in spring are gathered and taken to the sheds.
Sartorius, in his work on Mexico, says of its culture on the
plantation:--
[Footnote 66: Shepard says of the cultivation of tobacco
by the Indians:--"The tobacco which is raised on the
Tehuantepec isthmus is said, by good judges, to rival
that of Cuba, and commands, in the capital, equal prices
with the far-famed Havana. It is cultivated by the
Indians, whose fields, or '_milpas_,' according to
Indian custom, are situated at some distance from their
villages, often in the depths of the forest. Upon these
little patches they bestow whatever labor is consistent
with dislike for exertion, leaving the rich soil to
accomplish the balance."]
[Illustration: Mexican tobacco plantation.]
"Various kinds of tobacco are planted, mostly that with the
short, dingy, yellow blossoms, which has a very large,
strong leaf. But there is little doubt that the sorts would
be more carefully selected, if the trade were not fettered
by the monopoly. Most of the government planters enter into
an arrangement with the small farmers and peasants who have
to grow a certain number of plants, on conditions of handing
over the harvest at a low figure--six to eight dollars per
crop. These _aviados_ receive something in advance, and
their chief profit consists in securing the sand leaf and
the greater part of the after-harvest, which they sell to
the contrabandists. It is indeed allowed to export whatever
remains; but it is attended with so many annoyances from the
authorities, that it is never attempted. The many ships
which enter the Mexican harbor of the east coast with
European manufactures, find no return freight except gold
and silver, cochineal, vanilla, a few drugs and goat skins,
all of which take up very little room in the ships (money is
usually sent off in the English government steamers);
consequently they must either proceed to Laguna to buy
log-wood, or they must take in sugar, coffee, or tobacco, in
a Cuban or Haytian port. As soon as tobacco becomes an
export article, its cultivation must increase immensely in
the Coast States, the Mexican being very partial to this
branch of agriculture, which occupies him part of the year
only."
Mayer also alludes as follows to the same subject:--
"A large portion of the tobacco sold in the republic is
contraband; for the ridiculous and greedy restrictions and
exactions with which a plant of such universal consumption
is surrounded, necessarily disposes the people to violate
laws which they feel were only made to impair their rights
of production and trade under a constitution professing to
be free."
The government planters in the State of Vera Cruz have large, fine
plantations, and the plants are carefully tended and cultivated as in
all countries where tobacco is a government monopoly. On each plant a
certain number of leaves are taken off, including the sand leaf, which
is thrown away, and everything in the way of topping and suckering
performed as carefully as on the tobacco farms in Cuba. The small
farmers who raise only a few thousand plants are not as careful as the
large planters, and are sometimes guilty of planting more than the
number agreed upon, while the mountain passes towards the table-land
are carefully guarded to prevent smuggling of the crop, which is far
more remunerative than selling to the government.
We will now take the reader to the primitive tobacco plantations of
America about the middle of the Sixteenth Century. The plantations
were not located in Cuba as many have supposed but what has been
variously named Hispaniola, Hayti, and St. Domingo. It was in this
island that the Spaniards first began the cultivation of tobacco and
inaugurated (under the guise of Christianity) that career of monstrous
cruelty, with which their insatiable appetite for the burning of
heretics and for the baiting of bulls so well accords. In 1509, Diego
Columbus, the eldest son of the great discoverer, assumed in St.
Domingo, or as it was then called, Hispaniola, the vice-regal powers
which had been intrusted to him. Diego as portrayed by the historian
"was a man as noble as his father, and almost as gifted; and he had
his father's fate. Like his father, he had to bear all that Spanish
envy and Spanish malignity could inflict. In 1511, Diego Columbus sent
Diego Velasquez to conquer Cuba." From historians Velasquez gets a
better character than most of the _Conquistadores_, who in general
were as ferocious as they were audacious and fortunate. No serious
opposition was or could be offered. With the name of Velasquez the
prosperity of Cuba is inseparably identified. As Governor of Cuba he
was a vigorous colonizer and civilizer. He founded Havana, which he
called the Key of the New World, and which is said to rank as the
eighth place in the hierarchy of commercial cities. Havana, however
had long been flourishing before the seat of Government had been
transferred to it from Santiago. It was Velasquez who introduced
slavery into Cuba; and it was during his vice-royalty and under his
sanction that those memorable exploratory and conquering expeditions
began, the most astonishing of which was that to Mexico, led by
Cortez, the insubordinate lieutenant of Velasquez, whose death is said
to have been hastened by the rebellious and ungrateful conduct of
Cortez, and perhaps by the spectacle of such immense and rapid
success. The agricultural, commercial, and general growth of the West
India islands at this period would have been much more rapid if the
Spaniards had not annihilated the native population, and if they had
not been exposed to incessant piratical attacks. These were often of
the most desolating kind. In 1688, the city of Puerto Principe was
plundered and destroyed. From its strongly fortified position Havana
set the buccaneers at defiance, and sometimes saved the whole island
from ruin.
[Illustration: St. Domingo tobacco field, 1535.]
The exact period of the first cultivation of tobacco in St. Domingo is
not known, but we find that as early as 1535 the negroes had
habituated themselves to the use of it in the plantations of their
master. Soon however its cultivation increased, and during the latter
part of the Sixteenth Century the Spaniards shipped vast quantities
to Europe, a very large amount of which found its way to England,
where it brought fabulous prices. The Spaniards, by the application of
the lash and other cruelties, extorted from the negroes an amount of
labor never equaled by any other task masters in the world. Forcing
these slaves to labor on the plantations from morning until night,
with the fierce rays of a tropical sun shining full upon their
uncovered backs, and goaded on to the performance of the severest
toil, is it any wonder that the haughty cavaliers of Spain grew rich
from their industry, and feasted on the products of the Indies.
Cultivated on the rich soil of this fertile island, the tobacco of St.
Domingo had no competitor, until the Spaniards began its culture a
little later on the island of Trinidad, the product of which in time
stood at the head of all the tobaccos of the Indies and of South
America. The tobacco trade at this time was wholly controlled by the
Spaniards, who, though successful in this direction, made but slow
progress in colonization. Compared in the British colonies in the New
World, the Spanish possessions were weak and incompetent, and for all
their advantages in their great product, it was ultimately rivaled by
the English Colonial tobacco. In the conquest of the New World,
Spanish energy and enterprise seem to have exhausted themselves; and
as Spain was declining, its colonies could not be expected rapidly to
advance. The history of the Spanish conquest in America is a record of
cruelty and of blood, while that of English colonization is marked by
English rigor and enterprise, and is one of successful daring and
ultimate triumph.
The West India plantations, however, were still worked, and for more
than a century St. Domingo yielded a vast amount of tobacco, until the
soil of Cuba was found to be better adapted for its production than
any other of the West India islands, not excepting even the island of
Trinidad.
Hazard, in his work on Cuba, describes the celebrated _vegas_ or
tobacco plantations, of the island as follows:
[Illustration: A Cuban _vega_.]