From New Orleans we learn that the arrivals from the interior since the 1st September had amounted to 18,043 hhds. against 5,165 hhds. last season, and the stock on hand was 24,128 hhds. against 7,927 hhds. only.
The shipments from Virginia during the past year exceeded 13,700 hhds. In 1851 they were under 4,000 casks.
From Baltimore 54,272 hhds. have been exported. The official figures for the previous year gave 35,967 as the total.
The aggregate stock of tobacco on the 1st of January last, in the principal ports of America, was taken at 52,982 hhds. against 45,292 the year before and the growth of the Western States, Virginia, and Maryland during 1852, to come forward for our supply the present season, is estimated at 185,000 hhds., notwithstanding all the unfavorable influences and curtailing causes which were said to have prevailed.
The method adopted of cultivating tobacco in Virginia is thus described:
Several rich, moist, but not too wet spots of ground are chosen out in the fall, each containing about a quarter of an acre or more, according to the magnitude of the crop, and the number of plants it may require.
These spots, which are generally in the woods, are cleared, and covered with brush or timber, for five or six feet thick and upwards; this is suffered to remain upon it until the time when the tobacco seed must be sowed, which is within twelve days after Christmas. The evening is commonly chosen to set these places on fire, and when everything thereon is consumed to ashes, the ground is dug up, mixed with the ashes, and broken very fine. The tobacco seed, which is exceedingly small, being mixed with ashes also, is then sown and just raked in lightly; the whole is immediately covered with brushwood for shelter to keep it warm, and a slight fence thrown around it. In this condition it remains until the frosts are all gone, when the brush is taken off, and the young plants are exposed to the nutritive and genial warmth of the sun, which quickly invigorates them in an astonishing degree, and soon renders them strong and large enough to be removed for planting, especially if they be not sown too thick. Every tobacco planter, assiduous to secure a sufficient quantity of plants, generally has several of these plant beds in different situations, so that if one should fail, another may succeed; and an experienced planter commonly takes care to have ten times as many plants, as he can make use of.
In these beds, along with the tobacco, they generally sow kale, colewort, and cabbage seed, &c., at the same time.
There are seven different kinds of tobacco, particularly adapted to the different qualities of the soil on which they are cultivated, and each varying from the other. They are named Hudson, Frederick, Thick-joint, Shoe-string, Thickset, Sweet-scented, and Oronoko. But although these are the principal, yet there are a great many different species besides, with names peculiar to the situations, settlements and neighbourhoods wherein they are produced; which it would be too tedious here to specify and particularise. The soil for tobacco must be rich and strong; the ground is prepared in the following manner:—after being well broke up and by repeated working, either with the plough or hand hoes, rendered soft, light, and mellow, the whole field is made into hills, each to take up the space of three feet, and flattened at the top.
In the first rains, which are here called seasons, after the vernal equinox, the tobacco plants are carefully drawn while the ground is soft; carried to the field where they are to be planted, and one dropped upon every hill, which is done by the negro children. The most skilful slaves then begin planting them, by making a hole with their finger in each hill, inserting the plant with the taproot carefully placed straight down, and pressing the earth on each side of it. This is continued as long as the ground is wet enough to enable the plants sufficiently grown to draw and set; and it requires several different seasons, or periods of rain, to enable them to complete planting their crop, which operation is frequently not finished until July.