Page:Rural Hours.djvu/559

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THE COUNTY.
511

that of the lumber. It will be observed, that for wool, hops, fulling-mills, and grist-mills, we are the first county in the State. For wax we are the second; and doubtless for honey also, though honey is not specified in the table. For neat cattle we are the third. For wheat the twenty-third; thirty-five years ago, this was one of the greatest wheat regions in the whole country, but the weevil made its appearance, and became so mischievous that our farmers have changed their wheat-fields into hop-grounds.

Oddly enough, for tobacco we are the second county, although that does not say much, since only 744 lbs. are raised in the State, and probably most smokers would think that amount more than enough, for the quality must be very indifferent. But here and there a little is raised by the farmers for their own uses, and perhaps to fill a pipe for their wives now and then; quite a number of country women in our neighborhood are in the habit of smoking, and occasionally, young women, too. Not that the habit is a general one, though in rustic life, more women smoke than is commonly believed. Formerly, there was probably much more tobacco raised in this State than at present, for in old times, when we still had slaves among us, it was a general rule that every head of a family among the blacks had a little patch of land allotted to him expressly for the purpose of raising broom-corn and tobacco: the corn he made up into brooms and sold to the family, the tobacco he kept for himself and his wife.

Observe that the woollen and cotton goods manufactured in this State are nearly equal in value; the cotton goods amounting to $3,600,000, the woollen goods $3,500,000. The amount of home-made goods exceeds either by a million, $4,600,000. The value of the lumber, for the same year, was less than that of the home-