** The Roanoke is formed by the junction of the Dan and Staunton Rivers, near the south boundary of Virginia, and flows into the head of Albemarle Sound. It is navigable to the falls, at Halifax, seventy-five miles, for small vessels.
Cotton Fields.—Route of Greene's Retreat.—Journey toward Hillsborough.—Tobacco Culture.
miles from the river I passed some fields of cotton not yet garnered, and the wool, escaped from the bolls, looked like patches of snow upon the shrubs. These were the first cotton plantations I had seen. I was surprised to learn that the cotton harvest may begin in September, and yet, at the close of December, much, here and elsewhere at the South, was in the fields, and injured by exposure to the taints produced by rains. Better husbandry seemed to prevail on this side of the Roanoke, and neat farm-houses gave the country a pleasing appearance of thrift. I was now on one of the great routes of travel from Central Virginia to Hillsborough, the seat of the Provincial Congress at the opening of the war of the Revolution. It was also the great route of emigration from Virginia when the wilderness upon the Yadkin was first peopled by white men. I had intended to follow the track of Greene and his army while retreating before Cornwallis in the spring of 1781, but in so doing I should omit other places of paramount interest. That track lay between forty and fifty miles northwest of my route to Hillsborough.
The pine forests now became rare, and the broken country was diversified by well-cultivated plantations, and forests of oaks, chestnuts, gum, and a few catalpas. Toward evening I arrived at Nut Bush Post Office, in Warren county (formerly a part of Granville), a locality famous in the annals of that state as the first place in the interior where a revolutionary document was put forth to arouse the people to resist the government. * The postmaster (John H. Bullock, Esq.) owned a store and an extensive tobacco plantation there. Under his roof I passed the night, in the enjoyment of the most cordial hospitality, and was warmly pressed to spend several days with him, and join in the seasonable sports of turkey and deer hunting in the neighboring forests. But, eager to complete my journey, I declined, and the next morning, notwithstanding another strong northeast gale was driving a chilling sleet over the land, I left Nut Bush, and pushed on toward Oxford. The staple production of this region appears to be tobacco; and drying-houses and presses composed the principal portion of the outbuildings of the plantations. **
* On the sixth of June, 1705, when the nows of the passage of the Stamp Act reached the interior of the province, a paper was circulated at Nut Bush, entitled, "A Serious Address to the Inhabitants of the County of Granville, containing a brief Narrative of our Deplorable Situation and the Wrongs we suffer, and some necessary Hints with respect to a Reformation." This paper had for its epigraph the following line: "Save my country, heavens, shall be my last." The paper was prepared by an illiterate man, but it was so forcibly and clearly expressed that it had a powerful effect on the people.—Martin, ii., 197; Caruthers's Life of Caldwell, 107.
** To the Northern reader a brief general description of the tobacco culture may not be uninteresting. The ground for germinating the seed is prepared by first burning a quantity of wood over the space to be sown. This process is to destroy all the roots of plants that may be in the soil. The ashes are then removed, and the earth is thoroughly digged and raked until it is like a bed in a garden prepared for seed. The tobacco-seed (which appears like mustard-seed) is then mixed with wood-ashes and strown in drills a few inches apart. This is generally done in February. When the plants are grown two or three inches in height, they are taken up and transplanted into little hillocks in the fields. This is done at about the first of May. From that time the crop demands unceasing attention. These plants will grow about a foot high within a month after the transplanting. They are then topped; the suckers and lower leaves are pruned off, and about twice a week they are cleaned from weeds and the large and destructive worms which infest them. They attain their full growth in about six weeks after the first pruning, and begin to turn brown—an evidence of ripening. As fast as they ripen they are cut and gathered into the barns or drying-houses. This operation commences about the first of September. The plants, after being cut, are left upon the ground to sweat for a night, and then taken to cover. There they are hung up separately to dry for four or five weeks. The tobacco-houses are made as open as possible, for the circulation of air, but so as to avoid the rain. When sufficiently dry, the plants are taken down and dampened with water, to prevent their crumbling. They are then laid upon sticks, and covered up close to sweat for a week or two longer. The top part of the plant is the best, the bottom the poorest for commerce. When thus prepared, the leaves are stripped from the stalk, and pressed hard into boxes or hogsheads for market. The presses used in the tobacco districts are of two kinds; one is a lever, the fulcrum being two rude upright posts. The hogshead or box is placed near the posts. The smaller end of the lever is forked, or has a slot, through which passes another upright stick with a series of holes. Weights are attached to that end, and as it is gradually brought down it is secured by a strong pin to the upright post. The other and more efficient presses have a wooden or iron screw for leverage, like the cider presses of the North, or the common standing presses in manufactories. These are more expensive, and are used only on plantations of considerable extent. The tobacco plant, when full grown, is four or five feet in height. The stalk is straight, hairy, and very clumsy. The leaves grow alternately, are of a faded yellowish green, and are very large toward the lower part of the plant. There is scarcely a vegetable on the face of the earth more really nauseous and filthy in taste and the effects of use, than tobacco, and yet hundreds and thousands of the most fertile acres of our country are devoted to the cultivation of this noxious weed, which is good for none, but injurious to many, where millions of bushels of nutritive grain might be raised.
Williamsburg and Oxford.—Tar River.—Fording Streams.—The Princely Domain of Mr. Cameron.