for fertilizer could make such worn-out land
again productive. Washington himself described the character of the
agriculture in words that can not be improved upon:

"A piece of land is cut down, and left under constant cultivation, first
in tobacco, and then in Indian corn (two very exhausting plants), until
it will yield scarcely anything; a second piece is cleared, and treated
in the same manner; then a third and so on, until probably there is but
little more to clear. When this happens, the owner finds himself reduced
to the choice of one of three things--either to recover the land which
he has ruined, to accomplish which, he has perhaps neither the skill,
the industry, nor the means; or to retire beyond the mountains; or to
substitute quantity for quality in order to raise something. The latter
has been generally adopted, and, with the assistance of horses, he
scratches over much ground, and seeds it, to very little purpose."

The tobacco industry was not only ruinous to the soil, but it was badly
organized from a financial standpoint. Three courses were open to the
planter who had tobacco. He might sell it to some local mercantile
house, but these were not numerous nor as a rule conveniently situated
to the general run of planters. He might deposit it in a tobacco
warehouse, receiving in return a receipt, which he could sell if he saw
fit and could find a purchaser. Or he could send his tobacco direct to
an English agent to be sold.

If a great planter and particularly if situated upon navigable water,
this last was the course he was apt to follow. He would have his own
wharf to which once or twice a year a ship would come bringing the
supplies he had ordered months before and taking away the great staple.
If brought from a distance, the tobacco was rarely hauled to the wharf
in wagons--the roads were too wretched for that--instead it was packed
in a great cylindrical hogshead through which an iron or wooden axle was
put. Horses or oxen were then hitched to the axle and the hogshead was
rolled to its destination.

By the ship that took away his tobacco the planter sent to the English
factor a list of the goods he would require for the next year. It was an
unsatisfactory way of doing business, for time and distance conspired to
put the planter at the factor's mercy. The planter was not only unlikely
to obtain a fair price for his product, but he had to pay excessive
prices for poor goods and besides could never