"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.