being exported separately. The lowest grade was known as lugs as early as 1686, one barrel of this quality forming a part of the estate of Robert Clark of York, an appraisement of which was made and entered upon record in that year.[1] The leaves were generally deprived of their stems before they were packed in cask, but occasionally these were allowed to remain;[2] in July, 1698, Fitzhugh shipped to England in the same vessel thirteen hogsheads of stemmed sweet-scented tobacco and two hogsheads of unstemmed.
Special legislative precaution continued to be taken to ensure excellence in the construction of the framework of the cask, this being necessary to keep it from falling asunder when rolled; every stave was still to be one-third of an inch in thickness, and the timber from which it was fashioned was to be dry and seasoned. It was not judged to be in this condition unless it had been kept for a period of three months after it had been hewed.[3] The hogshead was required to be forty inches in height, measuring by the stave, and thirty inches in the drain of the head. It was first to be stamped with the initials of the name of the cooper who had made it, and as soon as it was packed with tobacco, it was marked 1, 2, 3, or 4, and so on, according to the number of the hogsheads which the owner intended to export. The initials of the
- ↑ For an additional instance, see Records of York County, vol. 1687-1691, p. 292, Va. State Library.
- ↑ Letters of William Fitzhugh, July 26, 1698.
- ↑ Hening’s Statutes, vol. III, p. 51. The strictness of the regulations as to the size of the hogsheads and the timber of which they were made seems to have been rendered necessary by the disposition of many planters to give an over-proportion of thickness to the staves and heading, as a means of defrauding the purchaser, who was generally a merchant or a shipowner. See Proclamation of Howard instructing the Grand Juries to take cognizance of all violations of the law. Records of Lower Norfolk County, original vol. 1675-1686, f. p. 178.
