A. BE. Verrill—The Bermuda Islands. 55 
~J 
Therefore, it is remarkable that any respectable crops of such an 
exhaustive plant as tobacco could have been raised on the same land 
for so long atime. It is certain, however, that the fertility of the 
soil had very much decreased before tobacco culture was abandoned 
(about 1707). But in the meantime Virginia and other American 
colonies had become great tobacco-growing countries (about 1626) 
and produced a better quality, so that the prices of the island pro- 
duct had fallen to such an extent that the Bermudians could not 
compete with any profit. In 1627 it was worth about 1° 10¢ in Lon- 
don. It was finally sold at 3° per pound in 1670. For more than 
a hundred years after this culture was’ given up, the agriculture of 
the islands was very much diminished, though the raising of corn, 
oranges, potatoes, onions, and other products for export still con- 
tinued to some extent. The early agriculture was doubtless very 
simple and imperfect. Scarcely any implements except the grub- 
bing hoes were in use. Plows were practically unknown until 1839, 
when their use was urged and introduced to some extent by Gover- 
nor Reid. 
In Governor Tucker’s time, about 1618, 30,000 pounds of tobacco 
were shipped in one year. In 1620, 70,000 pounds were shipped by 
the “Joseph.” In later years 200,000 pounds were often shipped. 
In 1671 one vessel is said to have carried away 250,000 pounds. In 
1679 the officers of the Company stated that the annual value was 
about £5,000 sterling, but at that time the price per pound was very 
low. One year it is stated that it brought only 13° per pound. 
Owing to the increasing production of tobacco in Virginia and the 
West Indies, and the excessive freight and duties levied upon the 
Bermuda product, the price rapidly fell from 2° 6° to about 9° or 
less per pound between 1626 and 1630, At first the duty was 1° per 
pound ; in 1623 it was 97; in 1628 it was 6°. The duty and freight 
were often more than it would bring in the London market, so that 
the more the colonists raised the poorer they became. Although 
they raised an abundance of corn, potatoes, fruit, poultry, and other 
food, they had no commodities with which to buy goods from Eng- 
land, such as clothing, so that they became very destitute of clothing 
and many other necessities of life, though food was plenty.* 
* The destitution in clothing, etc,, caused by the decrease in the price of tobacco 
and the high duty on it, is graphically described in letters from Governor Roger 
Wood, written in 1632. The following extract is from one of these :— 
‘*To Mr. Ballene I referr the reporte of his voyage, usage and affection on this 
very poore Island, only for lacke of Canvasse shirts and shoes and such things 
