See
Hening 4:87--9 November 1720
"Whereas, the tending and making of seconds, is greatly prejudicial to the
staple of tobacco, and the laws made for preventing thereof, have been
evaded, & the penalties therein given against persons who shall be convicted
of tending seconds, are found insufficient to restrain persons from such
undue practices: . . . That whosoever shall weed, top, hill, succour, house,
cure, strip, or pack any seconds, suckers, or slips of tobacco, or cause or
suffer the same to be done, on or upon any plantation . . ."


Hening 4:507-9

"Whereas, at a general assembly, begun and held at the capitol, the twenty
first day of May, in the third year of his majesty's reign, an act was made,
for repealing the Act, for the better and more effectual improving the
Staple of Tobacco: and for the better execution of the Laws now in force
against tending Seconds; and for the further prevention thereof; which,
among other things doth require, That where the constables in their
perambulations directed by the said act, shall find or discover any slips or
suckers growing upon any plantation, above the height of nine inches and the
owner or overseer shall refuse to cut up and destroy them, the constables
shall cause the same to be cut up and destroied: [This act eliminated the
requirement that the seconds be cut up and destroyed]

The law is further explained in Hening 5:438--9, essentially it was intended
to prohibit the tending/growing of a second crop of leaves from the same
stalk --thus limiting the amount of tobacco produced. The "seconds" were
grown from the "suckers" which appeared following an initial cutting.

The following presents a reasonably complete picture of  "Sucker-hunting"
Hening 6:51--3
"Whereas the tending and curing tobacco slips and suckers, for the making of
seconds, is greatly prejudicial to the people of this colony, by debasing
the quality and depreciating the value thereof. . . . That if any person
shall weed, top, hill, sucker, house, cure, strip, or pack any seconds,
suckers, or slips of tobacco, or shall cause or suffer the same to be done
upon any plantation to hism or her belonging, or under hsi or her direction
or mangement, he or she shall forfeit and pay five hundred pounds of
tobacco, for every person employed thereon in that year; . . . Provided
nevertheless, That if any plants shall be destroyed by tempest, or
otherwise, when growing, and thrown away without being cured, or housed, any
person mya tend seconds, or slips upon the same stalks, without being liable
to the penalty aforesaid. . . . That every constable within this colony
shall yearly, between the last day of July, and the tenth day of August, and
between the twentieth day of August, and the tenth day of September, and at
such other times as he shall think proper, repair to all the fields and
places whereon tobacco shall be planted or tended, within his precinct, and
diligently view the same, to discover whether any slips, or suckers, shall
be turned out and tended, from the stalks, from which any tobacco plant hath
been before cut, or taken; and if he shall find any such, he shall make
information thereof to the next court held for his county: . . . And that
for encouraging the constables to preform their duty, one pound of nett
tobacco shall be levied on every tithable in each county, and distributed to
the several constables, in proportion to the number of tithables in their
respective precincts;

While I did not do a complete literature search this time, the first
reference I have found is in Hening 1:399 [March, 1655--6] at which time the
informant was paid one-half of the penalty.

Barbara

Barbara Vines Little, CG
PO Box 1273
Orange, VA 22960
phone/fax 540-832-3473 (evenings)
[log in to unmask]

CG is a service mark of the Board for Certification of
Genealogists®, used under license by board-certified associates who meet
genealogical competency standards prescribed for those programs.






----- Original Message -----
From: macbd1 <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2003 3:08 PM
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] "sucker hunting"


>  None of my books or on-line history sources speak of
> Virginian laws which prohibited the growing of suckers; it seems that
> removal of as many suckers as practicable was a good business practice.
> However, such a law may have been intended to upgrade practices of some
> planters who tended to minimize their costs at the loss of quality,
thereby
> being detrimental to the reputation of Virginian tobacco -- a highly
> competitive product within the colonies, especially between Virginia and
> Maryland.
>
> So...was a 'sucker-hunter' the field worker who looked for and removed
> suckers, a county appointee who counted the number of tobacco plants grown
> by individual planters or a colonial government appointee who inspected
> intended shipments of tobacco at a government warehouse, looking for
> suckers, 'trash' material, and other measures of overall quality?  Barbara
> Little's knowledgeable posting indicates the middle option is correct for
> the specific purpose of Jim Watkinson, to which I agree since the record
in
> question is from Orange **County**, VA.  However, the term 'sucker hunter'
> seems to be a misnomer for 'plant-counter' in this case, unless the county
> appointee also looked for an excessive number of suckers and recorded such
> (this could only be done after a field had ripened and been topped and
> suckered the final time) -- but suckers were also hunted at the Inspection
> Warehouses after 1730.  This leads me to suspect the name sucker-hunter
was
> a general term, loosely applied to all of the above and other
possibilities
> as well including a humorous one or two.  Btw, tobacco was nearly half of
> the total exported commodities from the colonies in 1750, amounting to
about
> 60 million pounds (weight) to England.
>
> With highest regards for Barbara Little and all, I'm simply a retired
> engineer and wannabe historian/genealogist.
>
> Neil McDonald
> [log in to unmask]
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Barbara Vines Little" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2003 4:45 PM
> Subject: Re: "sucker hunting"
>
>
> > Eric is correct, the law limited both the number of tobacco plants that
> > could be grown "per worker in the ground," i.e., tithable---whether
white
> or
> > slave and denied the growing of suckers or sideshoots because they
> produced
> > an inferior grade of tobacco. Constables were appointed by the county to
> go
> > to each farm/plantation and count the number of tobacco plants; they
were
> > paid a flat rate per tithable and you will find these listed in the
> > (usually ) October court list of items paid. Some of these lists survive
> > among the county loose papers and are usually erroneously labeled
> "tithable
> > lists" and filed as such. Tithables were created in the spring; tobacco
> > lists were created in the summer. I have seen a few that actually list
the
> > total number of tobacco plants.
> >
> > One of the lists for Orange County by a Hancock is acctually labeled
> > "Hancock, his sucker hunting list."
> >
> > Barbara
> >
> > Barbara Vines Little, CG
> > PO Box 1273
> > Orange, VA 22960
> > phone/fax 540-832-3473 (evenings)
> > [log in to unmask]
>
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Jim Watkinson [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> > > Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2003 10:12 AM
> > > To: [log in to unmask]
> > > Subject: "sucker hunting"
> > >
> > >
> > > Just ran across the following from Orange Co, VA, 1751:  "The
Pet[ition]
> > > of William Donaught Humbly Begs that your Worships will allow me my
> > > Tobacco for Sucker Hunting Last year according to the list I sent your
> > > worships . . ."  "Sucker hunting"???
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Any clues from the learned listers?
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Please pardon the cross-post.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Cheers.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Jim Watkinson
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > James D. Watkinson, Ph.D.
> > >
> > > Archives
> > >
> > > Library of Virginia
> > >
> > > [log in to unmask]
> > >
> > > 804.692.3804
>
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