must have been planted in soil from which the trees used in the construction of the fort had been cut away, since in an interval as brief as a fortnight there was but little time for any additional destruction of the forest.[1] The first wheatfield in Virginia lay in part at least upon “two mountains,” to use the phrase of the chronicler, by which it was intended to describe only rising ground. Whatever the object leading to the selection of this spot, whether the greater safety it ensured to the laborers from the elevated situation or its proximity to the fort, the soil must have been fertile, for by the fifteenth of June, just seven weeks after the original planting, the wheat had sprung up to the height of an average man.[2]
A garden was laid off when the ground was cleared for wheat, and the seeds of fruits and vegetables, not indigenous to the country, planted, including the melon and the potato, the pineapple and the orange. The settlers observed that these different fruits and vegetables prospered, although no special degree of care was taken in preparing the land for the reception of the seed, or in removing every obstruction to the growth of the plants after they had begun to expand. The first effort to produce cotton on the North American continent was also made at the same time.[3] It is interesting to discover that upon the threshold of the Colony’s existence, the adaptability of the soil and climate to the cultivation of the most valuable grades of tobacco was suspected, a
- ↑ “There is to be found all around the fort where we have cut down the trees, etc.,” Letter of Francis Perkins, 1608, Brown’s Genesis of the United States, p. 176. The fort was completed by the fifteenth of June. See Percy’s Discourse, p. lxx.
- ↑ Percy’s Discourse, p. lxx.
- ↑ Description of the New Discovered Country, British State Papers, Colonial, vol. I, 15, I; Winder Papers, vol. I, pp. 3, 4, Va. State Library.
