law, as to the condemnation to the fire of all unmerchantable tobacco, were to some extent enforced,[1] but the proof as to whether the warehouses were erected is not so positive. In 1638, only a few years after the provision as to the construction of the seven buildings for storage was adopted, the burgesses are found objecting to the great inconvenience of transporting their annual crop to different warehouses, which would have been necessary if the contract with the King for the purchase of the whole product of the Colony, at that time under advisement, had been carried out.
The effort to improve the quality of the tobacco exported was not confined to regulations making the burning of the meanest grades compulsory. Not only were the number of plants to be cultivated to the head pre-
- ↑ Letter of Governor Harvey to Secretary Windebank, British State Papers, Colonial, vol. IX, No. 82; Sainsbury Abstracts for 1637, p. 216, Va. State Library. The expression used by Harvey is: “He can give many instances of his strictness in that course, (i.e. condemning to the fire) both last year and this.” This letter was written Jan. 29, 1637-38.
