own 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