Tobacco Harvest

Tobacco Harvest. . , Did you know? The seeds of tobacco are extremely tiny, smaller than the size of the period at the end of this sentence. It is estimated that it would take 330,000 tobacco seeds to weigh one ounce., Even today, tobacco plants are largely harvested by hand. Seeds are manually sprinkled on a soil bed. From the bed, plants are transplanted into the field using a wooden stick, called a tobacco peg. Once the plants ripen enough to harvest, a knife is used to cut the stalk to the ground. The leaves are collected and set to hang in a barn, where the tobacco can dry over a period of weeks., Interesting Facts , For Thomas Watson, in 1852, tobacco was a cash crop. Notes show he sold 11 "hogheads" of tobacco to W.G. Gwathney, in Richmond, for $902.25., In April of 1860, he notes that the supply of tobacco in the world was so great, and the price was down to a point that he scarcely thought he should cultivate it., Watson was not adverse to chewing tobacco. In his notes he states he does not like to chew the "home-spun" tobacco, the short grass stuff. He prefers the manufactured articles.,

By the hand of David Watson... , "From the Peace of 1783 to the commencement of the French Revolution, tobacco was the principal money crop raised for sale and exportation in Virginia, as it has been, thro' the whole period of the colonial condition of the country.", "Previous to the war of the American Revolution, and the interruption of Commerce by the causes that led to it, ... the price of common good tobacco lands, between the head of tidewater and the first mountains, was from 15 to 20 Shillings an acre; Tobacco, from 15 to 20£."

(caption) The tobacco house at Bracketts is one of the larger structures on the property. The original wooden barn was made from thousands of feet of lumber, supported by a foundation of handmade brick, and roofed with approximately 10,000 hand-rived shingles.