60000lb Tob without hazard or risque, which will be both clear without charge of house keeping or disbursements for servants clothing. The Orchard in a very few years will yield a large supply to plentifull house keeping or if better husbanded yield at least 10000lb Tob annual income.

To Doctr. Ralph Smith in Bristol

B. Tobacco Cultivation in Virginia, 16501

As early as the middle of the 17th century the main features which characterized the growing of tobacco were evident in Virginia. These were the exhaustion of the Isoil, the lack of rotation of crops or of fertilization of the soil, the dispersion of the population, and the necessity of a large amount of fresh land to replace that which was worn out. Clayton was an English clergyman and has given an unusually intelligent account of Virginia.

But not to ramble after here-say, and other Matters; but to return to the parts of Virginia inhabited by the English, which in general is a very fertile Soil, far surpassing England, . . . for the generality of Virginia is a sandy Land with a shallow Soil: so that after they have clear'd a fresh piece of Ground out of the Woods, it will not bear Tobacco past two or three Years, unless Cow-pened; for they manure their Ground by keeping their Cattle, as in the South you do your Sheep, every Night confining them within Hurdles, which they remove when they sufficiently dung'd one spot of Ground; but alas! they cannot improve much thus, besides it produces a strong sort of Tobacco, in which the Smoakers say they can plainly taste I the fulsomness of the Dung. Therefore every three or four Years they must be for clearing a new piece of Ground out of Woods, which requires much Labour and Toil, it being so thick grown all over with massy Timber. Thus their Plantations run over vast Tracts of Ground, each ambitious of engrossing as much as they can, that they may be sure to have enough to plant, and for their Stocks and Herds of Cattle to range and to feed in; that Plantations of & 1000, 2000, or 3000 Acres are common, whereby the Country is thinly inhabited; the Living solitary and unsociable; Trading confused and dispersed; besides other Inconveniences: Whereas they might improve 200 or 300 Acres to more Advantage, and would make the Country much more healthy; for those that have 3000 Acres, have

1 A Letter from Mr. John Clayton, Rector of Crofton at Wakefield in Yorkshire, to the Royal Society, May 12, 1688. In Force, Tracts and Other Papers (Washington, ld 1844), III, no. xii, 20-23, passim.

scarce cleared 600 Acres thereof, which is peculiarly term'd the Plantation, being surrounded with 2400 Acres of Wood: ... .. Now, you must know they top their Tobacco, that is, take away the little top bud, when the Plant has put forth as many Leaves as they think the richness of the Ground will bring to a Substance; but generally when it has shot forth four or six Leaves. And when the top-bud is gone, it puts forth no more Leaves, but Side-branches, which they call Suckers, which they are careful ever to take away, that they may not impoverish the Leaves.

C. Tobacco the Sole Crop in Virginia, 17031

For a century after the settlement of Virginia tobacco was cultivated almost to the exclusion of every other agricultural product.

Colonel Robert Quary to the Lords of Trade

The People are very numerous - dispersed through the whole province [of Virginia] - Their almost sole business is planting and improving Tobacco, even to that degree that most of them scarce allow themselves time to produce their necessary provision, and consequently take little leisure to busy themselves about matters of State.

Your Lordshipps'

Most obedient servant

(signed) ROBT QUARY

D. Diversified Agriculture in Virginia, 17752

By the second third of the 18th century the exhaustion of the tobacco lands of Virginia and Maryland led to a decline in the cultivation of tobacco and the adoption of more diversified general farming.

As to fruit trees, they have all those which are known to us in Europe or Pensylvania; particularly, apples, pears, cherries, quinces, plums, grapes, peaches, and nectarines, in the same plenty as in Pensylvania, so as to be applied to the same use of feeding hogs as there. All other fruits are produced here, as may from the climate be supposed.

1 Documents relative to the Colonial History of New York. Edited by E. B. O'Callaghan (Albany, 1856-87), IV, 1051.

• American Husbandry. By an American (London, 1775), L 219-20.

Besides tobacco, which is the staple of these colonies, and of which I shall speak more by-and-by, wheat and all our other kinds of grain and pulse thrive here equally, if not in a superior degree, to any of our other colonies; . . . and in these articles of common husbandry the planters have increased much more than in tobacco, for reasons which I shall explain hereafter.

No part of America, or indeed of the world, boasts more plentiful or more general production of all sorts of garden vegetables; and in a state of excellence that is proportioned to the heat of the climate. The same remark may also be made of their fish and fowl, having every sort that is found in Pensylvania, with others that are peculiar to the country; being in all respects of food as plentiful as any territory in the world.

E. Cattle in South Carolina, 17311

Cattle multiplied rapidly, even when uncared for, in the mild climate and plentiful pasturage of South Carolina. Herds of a thousand cattle or more were not infrequent.

The Cattle of Carolina are very fat in Summer, but as lean in Winter, because they can find very little to eat, and have no Cover to shelter them from the cold Rains, Frosts, and Snows, which lasts sometimes 3 or 4 Days: Only the Cattle design'd for the Butchery are fed, and they bad enough, with Potatoes, Straw, and Grain; but they always lie in the open Field, for there is not one Hovel in all the Country, either for Oxen or Cows. If you object this to the Planters, they answer, that such Houses or Hovels would do very well, but that they have too many other Affairs to think of that. The last Winter being very severe about 10,000 horned Cattle died of Hunger and Cold. Notwithstanding this, the People will not change their Conduct, because they do not understand the manner of ordering Cattle, nor even know how to mow the Grass, in order to make it into Hay, of which they might have great Plenty for Fodder. Their Ignorance in this respect is very great, which is the Reason that Butter is always dear, being sold last Winter at 7s. 6d. per Pound, and in January and February last it was sold at Charles Town for 125. per Pound: In a word, nothing would be more easy than for Persons who understand Country Affairs to grow rich in a little time. There is so great a number of Cattle, that a certain Planter had last

1 A Description of the Province of South Carolina. By J. P. Purry et al. In Force, Tracts and Other Papers (Washington, 1837), II, no. xi, 8-9.

Spring 200 Calves marked, which he let run in the Woods with other Cattle; Nobody looks after them, or takes any other Care, but to bring them together in the Evening to lie in a Park near the House.

At certain times they kill a great many to send the Flesh salted to several other Colonies, where there is little Pasturage, particularly to the Isles of Antilles, and in general to all those of the Torrid Zone.

Horses, the best Kind in the World, are so plentiful, that you seldom see any body travel on foot, except Negroes, and they oftner on horseback; so that when a Taylor, a Shoemaker, or any other Tradesman, is obliged to go but 3 Miles from his House, it would be very extraordinary to see him travel on foot.

There is likewise in this Country a prodigious number of Swine, which multiply infinitely, and are kept with very little Charge, because they find almost all the Year Acorns, of which there is 5 or 6 sorts, as also Nuts, Walnuts, Chesnuts, Herbs, Roots, &c. in the Woods: So that if you give them neverso little at Home they become fat; after which you may salt and send great quantities of them to the Isles of Barbadoes, St. Christophers, Jamaica, &c. which produced very good Returns either in Money or Merchandizes.

Of all Animals in that Country, none are a less Charge than Sheep, for they subsist only on what they find in the Fields; yet are always in good Case, and bring forth their Lambs regularly; and there is a particular sort, whose Wool is not inferiour to the finest Spanish Wool.

F. Agriculture and Stock-raising in North Carolina, 17751

The practice of an orderly agriculture had not progressed very far in North Carolina, even by the end of the colonial period. The bounty of nature and the vast extent of land made careful and systematic methods of culture or care of cattle seem unnecessary to the colonist, and he consequently adopted wasteful and extravagant practices. These are described by our best if severest critic.

The products of North Carolina are rice, tobacco, indigo, cotton, wheat, peas, beans, Indian corn, and all sorts of roots, especially potatoes. Rice is not so much cultivated here as in South Carolina; but in the latter they raise no tobacco, whereas in North Carolina it is one of their chief articles. It grows in the northerly parts of the 1 American Husbandry. By an American (London, 1775), I, 331-2, 337-8,

• 349.

province, on the frontiers of Virginia, from which colony it is exported. Indigo grows very well in the province, particularly in the southern parts, and proves a most profitable branch of culture. Cotton does very well, and the sort is so excellent, that it is much to be wished they had made a greater progress in it. The greatest articles of their produce which is exported are tar, pitch, turpentine, and every species of lumber, in astonishing quantities. . . .

The two great circumstances which give the farmers of North Carolina such a superiority over those of most other colonies, are, first, the plenty of land; and, secondly, the vast herds of cattle kept by the planters. The want of ports, as I said, kept numbers from settling here, and this made the land of less value, consequently every settler got large grants; and, falling to the business of breeding cattle, their herds became so great, that the profit from them alone is exceeding great. It is not an uncommon thing to see one man the master of from 300 to 1200, and even to 2000 cows, bulls, oxen, and young cattle; hogs also in prodigious numbers. Their management is to let them run loose in the woods all day, and to bring them up at night by the sound of a horn: sometimes, particularly in winter, they keep them during the night in enclosures, giving them a little food, and letting the cows and sows to the calves and pigs; this makes them come home the more regularly. Such herds of cattle and swine are to be found in no other colonies; and when this is better settled, they will not be so common here; for at present the woods are all in common, and people's property has no other boundary or distinction than marks cut in trees, so that the cattle have an unbounded range; but when the country becomes more cultivated, estates will be surrounded by enclosures, and consequently the numbers of cattle kept by the planters will be proportioned to their own lands only. . . .

The system pursued here is as faulty as in most other parts of America; it consists in cropping the land with tobacco as long as it will bear it; then they will take two crops of maize, and after that throw in wheat, peas, &c. for several years longer; after which they leave the land to become forest again; as fast as they want more, they take it from the old woodland, serving it in the same manner. It is owing to this wretched system that many of their corn-fields are so full of weeds, that in some it is difficult to know what is the crop.