296 Percy Wells Bidwell 



the population engaged in specialized agriculture was also a factor 

 of prime importance. In both these respects the area first mentioned, 

 the Chesapeake lowlands, was of least importance. The decline of 

 the plantation system was already evident in Virginia and Maryland 

 in 1775. "The tobacco staple was a resource of decreasing value, and 

 many people were finding it necessary to resort instead to the pro- 

 duction of food-stuffs for market."^ 



A more general agriculture with considerable areas devoted to 

 wheat and other grains, and in the back-country to cattle raising, 

 was taking the place of the former specialization.^ The planters in 

 the tide-water region in 1810 were raising beef and pork, poultry and 

 mutton, apples and other fruits in sufficient quantities for their own 

 consumption, and wheat and corn for export.^ The exceptional 

 plantations which must depend on outside food supplies were very 

 easily supplied from the back-country region where a general system 

 of agriculture had always prevailed, for in Virginia and Maryland 

 this region was in close contact with that of the plantations. Con- 

 sequently we are not surprised to find that the New England farmers 

 had no market in this region.^ 



' Philips, Ulrich B., Plantation and Frontier. In Documentary History of 

 American Industrial Society. (John R. Commons, ed.) 10 vols. Vol. I., p. 83. 



2 Jefferson in his Notes on Virginia. (1787) Boston. 1832. p. 174, had noted 

 this tendency. In his estimate of the exports are found: Wheat, 800,000 bu.; 

 and corn, 600,000 bu., with smaller amounts of peas, beef, and pork. See also 

 Morse, Gazetteer, 1810, art. Virginia. 



As early as 1767, John Mitchell had written of this region: "The tobacco colonies 

 enjoy a better soil and climate, [than "the more Northern colonies"] and have by 

 that means hitherto had a good staple commodity, ... so long as their 

 lands are fresh and fertile; but most of them are worn out with that exhausting 

 weed, and will no longer bear it; they are turned into Com and Pasture grounds, 

 which produce nothing but Com, Cattle and Wool, as in the Northern colo- 

 nies; ..." Andof Virginia in particular he says: "the soil is in general very 

 light, and so shallow, that it is soon worn out by culture, especially with such 

 exhausting crops as Indian Corn and Tobacco. It is for this reason that they are 

 now obliged to sow Wheat, and exported fifty or sixty shiploads the last year." 

 The Present State of Great Britain and North America. London. 1767. pp. 175- 

 176, 177. 



' See the description of Prince George County, Virginia, in Mass. Hist. Soc. 

 Coll., I. 3:89. 



* A discussion of the commerce of Maryland is to be found in Carey, Matthew. 

 American Pocket Atlas. 3 ed. Phila. 1805. p. 85; in Winterbotham, W. His- 

 torical, Geographical, CommerciaF, . . . View of the United States of Amer- 

 ica. 4 vols. New York. 1796. Vol. in., p. 43; and in Morse, Gazetteer, Art. 

 Maryland. 



