Tobacco Houses.

The picture represents one of the last of its kind. Fifty years ago the tobacco house was a fam- iliar object. It has since gone into decay or been con- verted into stables or sheds, till it is a difficult task to find one in a good state of preservation. It has been relegated to the past. But the sight of one, or its picture, is an object lesson in the history of the develop- ment of the county. Without it the pioneer settler would not have been able to pay his taxes, to buy the farm necessities which he himself could not produce, nor to pay for the land itself. Nothing that the pioneer could produce had such a market value as tobacco. The soil of the county, especially in the southern part, was peculiarly adapted to its growth. It had the added merit of being the easiest crop raised. A very small patch of it yielded very large returns in comparison with other crops. It could be planted among the stumps of deadened trees and be cultivated by hand. When the leaves were ready for gathering they were stripped from the stalk and strung upon long sticks. These were hung upon poles in the to- bacco houses. The houses were built very high, that the tobacco might be out of the reach of the flames. The entire upper part, reaching to the rafters was filled. Then a fire was started and the members of the family took turns at watching. It required close attention for a single spark striking the drying leaves would often set it on fire and crop and building would go up in smoke. This was always a calamity, for it 116

meant that the pioneer family would have to go with- out some things, and money would have to be borrowed to pay the taxes and probably for a payment on the land. Rehoboth and Maxville were the tobacco emporiums of the county. Huge warehouses were erected at these places, and the business that was done in a single day, during the tobacco season, was greater than is now done in the same village, in two months. It has not been many years since the old warehouse at Maxville was razed to the ground. The tobacco house occu- pied a very prominent place in the industrial history of the county. 117

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