The sugar cane stems grow into cane stalk from which the sugar is extracted. Tobacco broke down the fields and made food crops more productive. An American Family History is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Rows of furrows about 1ft wide were dug to plant the sugar canes, Seeds were planted by hand at one-yard intervals, Before canes are harvested the sugar fields were burnt to remove leaves and weeds, During sugar harvesting the cane was cut at the lower stem, leaving the rest to produce more crops, Sugar cane crops could be cut and produced up to 4 times without having to be replanted. Cheap labor was essential for the slave plantations to become profitable. A considerable amount of tobacco was also being grown in the lower region of the Valley of Virginia. Then came the settlements along the York and its tributaries, the Mattapony and the Pamunkey; and finally, along the banks of the Rappahannock and the Potomac. Work on the tobacco plantations required slaves. ... By the start of the American Revolution in 1775, the Virginia General Assembly voted to stop tobacco export to Europe. As cheap virgin soil became scarce, planters left their lands in Tidewater to take up fresh acreage in the Piedmont, or they stayed at home and grew grain, some corn but mostly wheat. The first general planting in the colony began at West and Shirley Hundreds where twenty-five men, commanded by a Captain Madison, were employed solely in planting and curing tobacco. Slaves were responsible for the ploughing, sowing and harvesting of the crop and were punished if they did not work hard enough. Sugar was most efficiently grown on the existing large slave plantations of the South. Of the four plants of the Americas that spread to the rest of the world in the Columbian Exchange—potato, maize, tomato, and tobacco—the last is the only one used in every country. Around 1775 one man produced from 2,000 to 2,500 pounds of tobacco besides provisions. The English and European colonists during the Colonial period had no practical experience of rice crops and the production of rice required its workers on the rice plantations to possess knowledge of the land and how to cultivate. In the South the nature of the crop usually determines the number of acres that one person can cultivate successfully. Slaves in the sugar plantations were expected to plant between 5,000 - 8,000 seeds in order to produce one acre of sugar. All during the seventeenth century expansion tended to extend in a northerly direction within the Tidewater region, but in the eighteenth century the movement was to the west in search of virgin soil. The early sugar plantations had an extensive use of slaves because sugar was considered as a cash crop exhibiting economies of scale in its cultivation. When its production was confined to the Tidewater area, Virginia produced about 40,000,000 pounds annually; by 1800 this amount had doubled. This boldness was shortlived, for the Indian Massacre of 1622 tended to narrow the area under cultivation for that year. Tobacco was the most important cash crop but the volatility of tobacco prices encouraged the planters to diversify and different types of slave plantations were established. b. slaves could be traded for manufactured goods with the middle and new england colonies. Tobacco Plantations. In North America, the British turned to slavery for the cultivation of tobacco on plantations clustered around the Virginia, which provided an easy maritime route to Europe and, increasingly, to the centre of the tobacco trade in Glasgow. Indigo PlantationsIndigo was the highly prized source of blue dye. In North America these tended to produce crops such as cotton or tobacco. By 1635 tobacco had almost disappeared in the immediate vicinity of Jamestown, as many of the planters moved to new land along the south bank of the York River. There was no machinery and only oxen and horses for power. The indigo crop was successfully cultivated in Louisiana, and factories were built for the manufacture of dye. During the six-year period 1750-1755, tobacco production appears to have been centered equally in three areas: the Upper James River district, the York River district, and the Rappahannock River district. Additionally, the government under China National Tobacco Corporation (CNTC) manufactures tobacco products which accounts for approximately a third of global consumption. These figures put into perspective the importance of the slave plantations in the Southern colonies. 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