The number of cattle in Virginia in 1620 was thought to be five hundred at least. The native breed at this time was pronounced by one observer to be much larger than the English stock from which they sprang, but this was probably an exaggeration, as the lack of provision in winter, which at a later period did so much to diminish the size of all domestic animals, must have had a perceptible effect even at this early day. A majority of the cattle in the Colony in 1620, however, were derived very recently from European blood, and therefore had not long been exposed to the influences that were to stunt the bodies of their descendants. The description of the native horses is fully in keeping with the character of the Virginian stock of a later age; they are said, with some exaggeration probably, to have been, at this time, more beautiful in form and more active in spirit than the English animal.[1]
The Company showed the strongest desire to increase the number of live stock in the Colony. In 1619, Sir Edwin Sandys proposed at a quarter court that twenty heifers should be sent over for every one hundred tenants exported. This would have amounted in that year alone to sixty head. The charge for conveying cattle to Virginia was very heavy. It was suggested that the expense might be materially reduced by entering into a contract with the shipping employed in the Northern fisheries. The sum necessary for the purchase of a heifer, and to meet the cost of her transportation, was ten pounds sterling, representing approximately two hundred and fifty dollars in the currency of the United States. At this time it required only the expenditure of two pounds sterling less to convey a heifer to Virginia than a man. In February,
- ↑ Declaration of the State of the Colonie, 1620, p. 5, Force’s Historical Tracts, vol. III.
