teenth century, this implement without tips or shares was to be purchased for two shillings, an amount equal in value to two dollars or more in modern American currency.[1] The cost of the plough in itself was so small that its price was no obstacle to its introduction into Virginia by the earliest settlers. The broad hoe in use was also valued at two shillings; a shovel, spade, frow and pickaxe were rated at eighteen pence a piece.[2] The absence of the plough was due in some measure to the want of draft animals and to the narrow surface under cultivation, but chiefly to the rough nature of the new grounds forming the larger portion of the fields of the colonists. The costliness of iron in this age made it inadvisable to use an implement of this character, having iron tips or shares, in soil constantly testing its power of resistance and endurance, for friction soon destroyed these two parts. Tips and shares were now more expensive than all the rest, a share alone at this time being valued at two shillings and two pence.[3] A share unprotected by iron would have soon gone to pieces in the lands under cultivation in Virginia during the administration of Smith.
Even at this early period, it was observed that animals in the climate of Virginia propagated their species very fast, a record being made of the fact, that in eighteen months three sows, imported most probably in the First Supply, gave birth to sixty or seventy pigs.[4] Hogs and
- ↑ Rogers’ History of Agriculture and Prices in England, vol. V, p. 675.
- ↑ These implements were included by the Company in its list of “Such Things as Men ought to Provide when they Goe to Virginia.” Works of Capt. John Smith, p. 608.
- ↑ Rogers’ History of Agriculture and Prices in England, vol. V, p. 675.
- ↑ Gondomar, in a letter to Philip III, written in 1613, remarked: “The cattle which they (English) take with them from here does not produce nor does it improve, because there is but scanty and bad grazing in the fields.” Spanish Archives, Brown’s Genesis of the United States, p. 660. Gondomar had either been misinformed, or he was intentionally depreciating the capabilities of Virginia. Not only did all kinds of cattle thrive and propagate very rapidly in the Colony, but it was observed at an early date, that “there were few countries where overgrowne women became more fruitful.” Works of Capt. John Smith, p. 886.
