Pagina 436 di 2651

By act of assembly, they have restrained its cultivation to six

thousand plants, supposed to yield a thousand weight of tobacco,

for every negro between sixteen and sixty years of age. Such a

negro, over and above this quantity of tobacco, can manage, they

reckon, four acres of Indian corn. To prevent the market from

being overstocked, too, they have sometimes, in plentiful years,

we are told by Dr Douglas {Douglas's Summary, vol. ii. p. 379,

373.} (I suspect he has been ill informed), burnt a certain

quantity of tobacco for every negro, in the same manner as the

Dutch are said to do of spices. If such violent methods are

necessary to keep up the present price of tobacco, the superior

advantage of its culture over that of corn, if it still has any,

will not probably be of long continuance.