ruined, but nothing was so cheap and plentiful in that day as land, so
the planter light-heartedly cleared more and let the old revert to the
wilderness. Any one who travels through the long settled parts of
Virginia to-day will see many such old fields upon which large forest
trees are now growing and can find there, if he will search closely
enough, signs of the old tobacco ridges. Only heroic measures and the
expenditure of large sums for fertilizer could make such worn-out land
again productive. Washington himself described the character of the
agriculture in words that can not be improved upon:

"A piece of land is cut down, and left under constant cultivation, first
in tobacco, and then in Indian corn (two very exhausting plants), until
it will yield scarcely anything; a second piece is cleared, and treated
in the same manner; then a third and so on, until probably there is but
little more to clear. When this happens, the owner finds himself reduced
to the choice of one of three things--either to recover the land which
he has ruined, to accomplish which, he has perhaps neither the skill,
the industry, nor the means; or to retire beyond the mountains; or to
substitute quantity for quality in order to raise something. The latter
has been generally adopted, and, with the assistance of horses, he
scratches over much ground, and seeds it, to very little purpose."

The tobacco industry was not only ruinous to the soil, but it was badly
organized from a financial standpoint. Three courses were open to the
planter who had tobacco. He might sell it to some local mercantile
house, but these were not numerous nor as a rule conveniently situated
to the general run of planters. He might deposit it in a tobacco
warehouse, receiving in return a receipt, which he could sell if he saw
fit and could find a purchaser. Or he could send his tobacco direct to
an English agent to be sold.