EARLY HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE IN VIRGINIA. 81 ART. VIII.-EARLY HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE IN VIRGINIA. No. IV. IMPLEMENTS. The particulars of the outfit suitable for a planter are given by Smith, (II. 97,) and among these we find "felling axes, and frows to cleave pale with; hoes, broad and narrow, spades and shovels," as suited for preparation and use in tillage, but no mention of plows. He elsewhere speaks of them as follows: In 1617 the Governor complained to the Company that the colony "did suffer for want of skilful husbandmen, and means to set their plows on work; having as good ground as any man can desire, and about forty bulls and oxen, but they wanted men to bring them to labor, and iron for the plows, and harness for the cattle. Some thirty or forty acres we had sown with one plow, but it stood so long on the ground before it was reaped, it was most shaken, and the rest spoiled with the cattle and rats in the barn, but no better corn could be for the quantity."—II. 35. Stith, in repeating this statement, adds: "however, I find in our old records, that some plows by this time were now set to work.”Page 147. 66 * * * By 1648 something had been done to supply this deficiency-as appears from a document of this year, entitled "a perfect description of Virginia "—" there having been nothing related of the true estate of this plantation these twenty-five years," and which gives minute and interesting details on many points of our agriculture. "Though this truly is the great labor in Virginia, to fell trees, and to get up the roots, and so make clear ground for the plow, we have many thousand acres of clear land, I mean where the wood is all off it, (for you must know all Virginia is full of trees,) and we have now going near upon a hundred and fifty plows, with many brave yoke of oxen, and we sow excellent wheat, barley, rye, beans, peas, oats; and our increase is wonderful, and better grain not in the world."-Historical Register II. 70, 74. It thus appears that the plows first used in Virginia were drawn by oxen-a practice which afterwards fell almost wholly into disuse. The majority of those were probably either very complex and frail or very primitive-if we may judge from their figures in some of the old books-and in either case their work must have been very imperfectly done. New comers from abroad would be like to use the British plow of their own day, until it was found to be ill-adapted to a new country, and that which at length was substituted for it here was a very inefficient implement and but little used in comparison with the spade and the hoe. We do not find in any of the histories or journals of travellers, a particular account of these or other implements in use at that day-nor until the times immediately preceding the Revolution. The "grubbing axe" or mattock was an efficient tool for clearing the ground, and is still used for that purpose. A correspondent of the American Farmer, who writes from Williamsburg in 1826, in speaking of those times, says, "I had seen one gentleman turning up his furrows with four horses to a wheel-plow, a postillion on the near' leading horse under the superintendence of an English farmer? I could detail many such facts, for the instruction and amusement of certain modern illuminati, whose vanity goes to the belief that good plowing, good plows, &c., were never known before the Revolution, or, more particularly, since the late war. The Blythe plow, or the swing-plow, resembled very much the modern plows; and these, with some little modification were what I commenced my career with."-Am. Farmer, VIII. 107. A machine so cumbrous-an experiment so costly as the former, was but little suited to the habits of the Virginians of that day, and the other and better implement could have made for a time but little progress beyond the district in which it first appeared. The plow of which tradition speaks was rather fitted to scarify the soil than to turn it over; and for this purpose it was not uncommon to attach a grubbing-hoe to an upright piece of timber inserted in the beam, which of course could penetrate to but a little depth in any other than the sandy lands of the lower country. Wheat was generally reaped with a sickle. There were, however, some exceptions before this. The papers of the same gentleman who sowed the spring wheat, (Dr. William Cabell,) show that in a particular year, which was certainly before 1760, and probably earlier, he employed a Dutchman by the name of Slo, to reap his grain with a scythe and cradle.* The practice did not obtain general currency until long after. I also find these lines in old Tusser's list of "Husbandly Furniture:" "A brush-scythe and grass-scythe, with rifle to stand; Sharp sickle and weed-hook, &c." "A May not the first implement have been similar to our brier-blade? His editor, Mavor, thus explains two other terms used in the text. rifle or rufle, is a bent stick standing on the but of a scythe-sneed or handle, by which the corn is struck into rows. A cradle is a threeforked instrument of wood, on which the corn is caught as it falls from the scythe, and thus is laid in regular order." Tusser's "Hundred Good Points of Husbandry" first appeared in 1557. It was afterwards much enlarged, and as it continued for many generations. the most popular book of its kind in England, we can hardly suppose that it was wholly unknown in Virginia. Both the scythe and the cradle, then, as distinguished from the sickle, were known there long ago. That they have never come into general use, is owing, in part, to the aversion of their laborers to all labor-saving implements or machines, as tending to throw them out of employment. In the year 1774 there was instituted at Williamsburg a "Society for the Advancement of Useful Knowledge "-perhaps the first of its kind in the State-of which John Page, of Rosewell, was chosen President, though probably suggested by Col. Theodorick Bland, jr., as he certainly took an active part in its proceedings for some years.-Bland Papers, I. XXV. Agriculture was among the subjects discussed by *The scythe had been long known in Flanders, as also in Normandy. Loudon's Enc. Ag. $405, 509. See also Memoirs of a Huguenot, 407, for what may be a yet earlier example of its use in Virginia. CATTLE AND OTHER STOCK. 83 this body, and in the year of its formation it voted a pecuniary reward and medal to a Mr. Holliday for his model of a very ingenious and useful machine for threshing out wheat.-Hist. Reg. VI. 218. What further influence for good it may have exerted does not appear; but so useful an example is worthy of commemoration. As yet also they had no fans. Small grain of every kind was separated from its chaff by throwing it against the wind, and further cleansed of its impurities by riddles or sieves, varying in fineness with the species of grain. Cattle and other Stock.—As few or none of the domestic animals known in Britain were found in Virginia, the several kinds were brought over in small numbers by the first adventurers. But although the country proved to be well suited to them, the stocks, though renewed more than once, were as often nearly consumed by the colonists while awaiting supplies from home and before they were prepared to make sufficient provision for their own use. In 1616, Rolfe gives their respective numbers as follows; Cattle, 144; horses and mares, 6; goats, 216; hogs and poultry, without number. In the Indian massacre of 1622, most of these and their increase were destroyed. But from Smith, we learn that in 1629, the cattle had again increased to between 2 and 5,000.-II. 257, 259. In 1631, he gives the latter as the number. Hist. Reg. I. 58. Laws were early passed for the preservation of females, and by 1648, they had again multiplied; the cattle to 20,000, although the ships coming here had been supplied with beef, and many others had been exported to New England; 200 horses, 50 asses, [does this imply that mules were also known among us at that day?] 3,000 sheep, wool of good quality, 5,000 goats, swine and poultry of all sorts innumerable. But during Bacon's rebellion there was again a great destruction of stock of all kinds.-Beverley, 69. Besides, the natural grasses of the marshes and old fields, the upland parts, when first explored and settled, abounded with wild pea-vines and annual grasses, which furnished excellent range for stock from spring to autumn, and did not wholly perish in winter, but served to eke out the scanty food provided by their owners. When this resource began to fail- —as fail it did, at length, for reasons already given-they do not seem at once to have made corresponding efforts to increase the supply from other sources. Says Glover: "All that the inhabitants give their cattle in winter, is only the husks of their Indian corn, unless it be some of them that have a little wheat-straw; neither do they give them any more of these than will serve to keep them alive; by reason whereof they venture into the marshy grounds and swamps for food, where very many are lost." Similar charges are urged by Beverley.-Hist. p. 236. Clayton says farther, "that they neither housed nor milked their cows in winter, having a notion that it would kill them;" that he put his landlady on a better method, urging her to sow her wheat as early as possible, the which if well rooted would serve as grazing for her milch-cows and weak cattle in fall and spring,* in which case she * We hardly need say that such a practice would not be indiscriminately recommended by judicious farmers now. Wheat sown thus early is more liable might milk them with impunity and save the others; also to fit up her tobacco-houses-which at that season were ever empty-to shelter them in seasons of peculiar severity; that whereas, the custom of the country was to give them in winter a small quantity of corn in the ears, because it was more nourishing, he showed her how this needless waste might be avoided by substituting rough food in plenty, and taught her the importance of the stimulus of distension as an aid to digestion. He "advised her likewise to save and carefully gather the Indian corn-tops and blades and all her straw, and whatever could be made fodder for her cattle, for of this they get but little and no hay, though I was urging her to that too, and to sow saint foin; for being a sandy soil, I am confident it would turn to very good account.' That to obtain good hay and safe pasturage, he taught her, moreover, both by precept and example, the importance of draining such of her marshes as lay on a firm foundation. All these projects, as he relates, were successfully carried out in her case; and we may suppose that her example herein-with one exception-was followed by others. Beverley, indeed, complains sometime thereafter that very few marshes had been drained; (History of Virginia, p. 262,) but stocks of different kinds must have received increased attention previous to 1724. "For," says Jones, "horned cattle, sheep and hogs thrive and increase there mightily." "Their beef and veal is small, sweet, and fat enough. Their butter good and plentiful enough."-Pages 42, 126. Burnaby, who visited the Valley in 1760, relates that the Germans, who had settled in the vale of Shenandoah, "gained a sufficient livelihood by raising stock for the troops and sending butter down into the lower parts of the country."-Hist. Reg. V. 152. * * ** None of these early accounts discriminate the cattle of Virginia, according to different breeds. But that there were several varieties we have otherwise reason to believe. Some of the first importations were from Ireland.-Smith, II. 60; Stith, 202, 205. Scotland, Wales, Holland, and probably Germany, through Pennsylvania, also furnished quotas. But much the largest contributions were received from England. Each of these types is well defined by characteristic marks as laid down in the English books. And he who, with these in mind, will traverse eastern and middle Virginia, and observe such of the original herds of the country as have been least mixed with the blood of improved animals of recent importation, will find that the distinctive traits of the Irish, Welsh, Galloway, Aryshire, and old Devon breeds are not yet wholly obliterated. The Hereford, however, is the prevailing type. No doubt all these different kinds became more or less mixed, and each in its average specimens degenerated, to the cause of which we shall presently advert. Of sheep, we find but little mention for many years, beyond the facts to attacks of Hessian fly. It may be harmless to graze slightly very rank wheat, and beneficial to crop such as has been invaded by the fly or joint-worm. Sandy soils laid down in wheat are more likely to be equably set in clover, if before the seed are scattered, the ground is trodden by sheep. But to graze the wheat on a medium or poor soil, besides lessening its yield, is thought to favor the growth of cheat. that some few were brought over at first and throve well; (Smith I. 128;) and that in 1648, after all disasters, they had increased to three thousand, good wool. Laws forbidding the exportation of either sheep or wool were passed in 1657. Says Glover, "as to their sheep, they keep but few, being discouraged by the wolves, which are all over the country, and do much mischief amongst their flocks." And Clayton: "Their sheep are of a middling size, pretty fine fleece in general, and most persons of estates begin to keep flocks, which hitherto has not been much regarded, because of the wolves that destroy them; so that a piece of mutton is a finer treat than either venison, wild goose, duck, widgeon, or teal." Beverley's account is even less favorable. "Their sheep yield good increase, and bear good fleeces, but they shear them only to cool them." Again: "Their sheep increase well and bear good fleeces; but they generally are suffered to be torn off their backs by briers and bushes, instead of being shorn, or else are left rotting upon the dung-hill with their skins."-Pages 229, 262. These surely must have been exceptional cases. Jones: "As for wool, I have had near as good as any near Leominster; and it might be much improved if the sheep were housed every night, and foddered and littered as in Urchinfield, where they have by such means the finest wool; but to do this would be of little use, since it is contrary to the interest of Great Britain to allow them exportation of their manufactures, &c." * * * "and Again: "Their mutton and lamb some people do not like." * * * * * "But sheep thrive and increase there mightily;" there is in Virginia as good wool as the finest in England; and I doubt not but with good management the climate will produce as fine as any in Spain, since the sheep in both places are of British original."-Pages 41, 42, 126. But Burnaby reports, 1759: "The sheep and horned cattle in Virginia being small and lean, the most of them is inferior to that of Great Britain, or indeed, of most parts of Europe."-Hist. Reg. V. As swine are more prolific than any other domestic animals, and as the forests and marshes afforded an abundance of mast, wild fruits, and vermin of various kinds, a small original stock would serve as a sufficient basis for the rapid increase of which we read. Many of them soon run wild in the woods and served for game both to the Indian and white hunters. So early as 1616, Rolfe says they "are not to be numbered." Smith, in 1629, that "no family is so poor that hath not tame swine sufficient."-II. 257. In 1631, that, "with other stocks and provisions, they have sufficient and to spare, to entertain three or four hundred people."-Hist. Reg. I. 58. In 1648, "both tame and wild (in the woods) innumerable; the flesh pure and good, and bacon none better."-Hist. Reg. II. 62. Glover says, "that from the abundance of fruits in their orchards-particularly peaches-large quantities were given to their hogs." Clayton: "Swine they have now in great abundance. Shoats or porkrels are their general food, and I believe as good as any in Westphalia; certainly far exceeding our English." "Hogs swarm like vermin upon the earth, and are often accounted such, insomuch, that when an inventory is taken by the executors, the hogs are left out and are not listed in the appraisement. The hogs |