VIRGINIA CARTOGRAPHY. 



55 



principles well known, and admitted in the colony. A negro 

 man or woman between i6 and 40 years of age is believed to 

 be worth fifty pounds (though three or four years ago they went 

 at double that price), reckoning then the above number of 

 negroes tithable but at 40 pounds each, they will amount to 

 3,001,680 pounds Virginia currency, and as to the residue, valu- 

 ing them at but 30 pounds each, they will amount to 3,376,800 

 pounds, and all of them to 6,378,570 pounds. As to the trade 

 of the colony, its staple is tobacco, and though it does not yield 

 much to the planter, notwithstanding that between 50,000 and 

 60,000 hogsheads are commnnibus annis exported to Great Britain, 

 yet as 17,000 tons of shipping are employed and many thousand 

 British inhabitants supported thereby, it is very valuable to the 

 subjects, and may also be said to be a jewel to the crown, as so 

 large a sum arises out of the duties. The country indeed is 

 very capable of improvement, and some attempts have been made 

 to raise hemp, though not considerable — the soil, however, is 

 very proper for such production. As to the drink used in the 

 colony, it is generally cider, every planter having an orchard, 

 and they make from 1,000 to 5,000 or 6,000 gallons, annually, 

 in proportion according to their rank and fortune. As to the 

 soil it is very dififerent in different parts; that which lies upon 

 the rivers and their branches, is generally a black deep soil and 

 produces the largest tobacco and all other plants, and, as the 

 country abounds in large navigable rivers, a great proportion of 

 the land is of this kind, the produce of which is very easily 

 brought to market; but the land that lies distant from the rivers 

 is generally of a middling quality, yet produces maize or Indian 

 corn sufficient for the supply of the inhabitants, who chiefly use 

 bread made from the grain; and the meanest and hilly lands are 

 very proper for the peach tree, every planter having an orchard 

 of those trees, the brandy made from that fruit being excellent, 

 and indeed might be made in sufficient quantities for the supply 

 of the people, was there not so much rum imported from the 

 Sugar Islands. As to the manufactories of Virginia, they con- 

 sist chiefly of cotton, for very little woollen and linen cloth is 

 made in the Province, there being but few sheep; and as little 

 land is spared from tobacco and grain, few of the inhabitants 

 understand the manag-ement of flax. Most of the men as well 



