With the over supply of tobacco the English market became extremely
discriminating in regard to the quality of the leaf it would
purchase. The colonial government from time to time resorted to
legislative expedients to prevent the shipment of inferior grades.
Governor Wyatt, in 1621 ordered that "for every head they should
plant but 1,000 plants of tobacco and upon each plant nine leaves."
John Rolfe also stated, in 1619, that, "An industrious man not
otherwaies imploied may well tend foure akers of corne, and 1,000
plants of tobacco." A thousand plants would give each worker about
112 pounds of tobacco a year. In 1628, an inspection law was enacted
and in 1640, it was ordered that all bad tobacco and half the good
should be destroyed.
Governor Berkeley, in 1664, made several ineffectual attempts to form
agreements, with the planters of Maryland and North Carolina, to
restrict the production of tobacco. The planters of each colony were
willing for those of the other to stop planting, or to destroy as
much tobacco as they pleased; but looking to their own selfish
interests they would increase rather than decrease their crop. The
Virginia General Assembly, in 1666, prohibited all culture of tobacco
but the Maryland authorities complained that the law was ignored by
the Virginia planters.
The Virginia colonists developed a keen rivalry among themselves in
efforts to improve the quality of the leaf grown. Reverend John
Clayton, in 1688, says: "For there is not only two distinct sorts of
sweet-scented and Aranoko tobacco but of these be several sorts, much
different, the seeds whereof are known by distinct names, of those
gentlemen most famed for such sort of tobacco, as of prior seed etc."
The Aranoko, probably from the Orinoco river region in South America,
was grown on the heavy clay soils. The product was a strong tobacco
that was most in demand in Germany and other North European
countries. The sweet-scented was grown on the lighter sandy soils and
although the yield was less it brought a better price on the market.
Hugh Jones, in his _Present State of Virginia_, in 1724, mentions one
of the many localities in Virginia which became noted for a
particular variety of tobacco grown there. To quote: "For on York
River in a small tract of land called Digges Neck, which is poorer
than a great deal of other land in the same latitude, 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."
Topping the growing tobacco plants was a practice originated by the
colonists. The main purpose was to limit the production to the large
lower leaves and to do away with the small immature leaves at the top
of the stem. The General Assembly often specified the number of
leaves which could be left; the number, varying with the value placed
on the leaf in England, ranged usually from six to nine.
Tobacco is a soil exhausting crop. The Jamestown planters soon
learned that continuous crops of tobacco, on the same land, soon
reduced both the quantity and quality of the leaf. The only resource
left to the tobacco farmers was to clear new fields. The more
well-to-do planters began to seek favorable locations of uncleared
land. The depleted fields were abandoned and the task of restoring
their productivity was usually left to nature. Much of the best
tobacco soils of Virginia have been cropped and then allowed to go
back to brush and tress and again cleared several times. Finding the
remains of old tobacco rows out in dense woods is not an uncommon
experience. This exhaustion of tobacco lands had a beneficial
influence on the agricultural development of Virginia. By the time
the fields were abandoned, most of the stumps had decayed and the
soil could be prepared for seeding to other crops with plow and
harrows. It was found that these depleted fields were still capable
of producing satisfactory crops of grain. Many of the colonists who
were not financially able to clear new grounds could often buy or
rent these abandoned fields for a nominal price.