Henry: These figures are not outlandish. If I recall correctly, during the 1720s when Virginia was trying to regulate tobacco production by, among other things, allowing each laborer to tend only a certain number of plants and no more, the figure allowed per tithable was 10,000. The Northampton County loose court records in Eastville contain several "counts" of tobacco plants on each farm by local tobacco inspectors in the late 1720s. For the best data on actual output (tobacco, corn, wheat) in the Chesapeake in the 18th century, look at Lorena Walsh's essay in Ira Berlin and Philip Morgan, eds., Cultivation and Culture: Labor and the Shaping of Slave Life in the Americas (1993). Douglas Deal Professor of History and Director of General Education State University of New York at Oswego Oswego, NY 13126 [log in to unmask] (e-mail) (315)-341-5631 (voice mail) (315)-341-3577 (FAX) To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html