710 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 12 



2dly. That the houses shall be all regularly 

 placed one by another in a square or such other 

 forme as the honorable Sir William Berkeley 

 shall appoint most convenient. 



3dly. That for the better ex pediteing this vvorke, 

 each of the severall seavenleen counties build one 

 house, and to that purpose be authorized to im- 

 presse in each of the said respective counties 

 brickla3^ers, labourers, carpenters, sawyers and 

 other tradesmen necessary to be readie at such 

 time as the governour shall think fitt. 



^'4thly. That lor avoideing the exaction of 

 workemen, the price of bricks, the wages of work- 

 men and labourers, and their diett attheordinaryes 

 shall not exceed the prices following, vizt. 



" Bricks being statute bricks and well burned, 

 one hundred and fiftie pounds of tobacco per thou- 

 sand ; labourers besides diett two thousand 

 pounds of tobacco by the yeare. 



'• Brickmakers haveing theire diett and six able 

 labourers to heipe them, provided at his or their 

 charge that employ them, and wood sufficient 

 brought in place for each thousand bricks mould- 

 ed and burned, fortie pounds of tobacco. 



"Bricklayers haveing theire diett and three 

 able labourers to attend each of them, for each 

 thousand of bricks layed fortie (a) pounds of tobacco. 



Carpenters per day besides theire dyett thirty 

 pounds of tobacco. 



Sawyers for boardes and summers one pound of 

 tobacco per foot, for timber (or Joyce, windowes, 

 door cases and rafters, principalis, purloyners and 

 other smalle timber, the said sawyers finding 

 themselves and labourers dyett, halfe a pound per 

 foot in length." — p. 172. 



More legislation in regard to mulberry trees was 

 thought necessary at the session of 1663. 



" Whereas there hath been an impossibility o^ 

 procureing soe many Mulberry trees as every pro- 

 prietor of land is by act of assembly enjoyned to 

 plant (or his proportion, being ten trees for every 

 hundred acres ; this grand assembly takeing the 

 same into their consideration have therefore enacted 

 that the time shalbe respited for three yeares 

 longer, vizt. untill the last of December, 1666, and 

 that whoever shall then be defitient shall for every 

 tree wanting bs fined twenty pounds of tobacco 

 being double '.he fine already imposed." — 191. 



" George the Armenian having proved the 

 making of ten pounds of wound silk it is ordered 

 there be paid him for his encouragement in the 

 levy according to act. 



'* John Dolby procuring certificate that he had 

 made and wove nineteen yards of woolen cloth in 

 Northton county, the assembly hath ordered him 

 the encouragement according to act being 

 tobacco. 



" John Pitte producing certificate that he had 

 built a vessel of 28 tuns in the Isle of Wight 

 county, the assembly ordered him the encourage- 

 ment of accordingly." — p. 199. 



Among other "Propositions humbly presented 

 to this honorable assembly" was the following: 

 " That the act for planting of mulberry trees 



(a) -Fifty' in Nortlib. MS. 



may be repealed it being very prejudicial to such 

 as want clear grounds and are not in a capacity at 

 present to (ialfill the same without great prejudice, 

 and it is humbly conceived that (ifu be beneficial) 

 men as they find themselves in a capacity will liill 

 upon it without constraint," — p. 202. 



The following are the general and material 

 parts of "an act for a cessation" of the cultivation 

 of tobacco for a limited time, passed in 1666. 

 This was a fiivorite policy, both with the govern- 

 ment and the people. But though it was often 

 attempted to be put in force, it was to little advan- 

 tage, from the non-concurrence of Maryland and 

 North Carolina, as well as for more general 

 and sufficient causes. 



" Whereas the quantity of tobacco made in 

 this country by encrease of the number ol' inhabi- 

 tants imploying themselves wholly to the makeing 

 that comodity, and their continued ffreedome of 

 their unlymitted planting is become soe greate that 

 all markelts have beene glutted with itt, and the 

 value of it reduced to so low a rate that the plan- 

 ter is rendred incapable of subsisting, the mer- 

 chant discouraged in his trade, and consequently 

 by the decay of trade his majesties customes im- 

 paired, while the tobacco that formerly releived 

 the planter, encouraged the merchant, and aug- 

 mented the custome, both now and some yeares 

 past did and doth rest perishing on the planters 

 account, to his utter undoeing; the remedy of 

 which inconveniencies the governour, councell and 

 burgesses of this assembly takeing into their seri- 

 ous consideration, have found that the most pro- 

 per and eflectuall course to effect the same wilbe 

 by enacting for one yeare a cessation from plant- 

 irig, In which vacant yeare time wilbe given to 

 the planter to settle himselfe upon the finding out 

 and improvement of some other staple (as wee 

 have already begun in silke.tflax, and potash) the 

 merchant encouraged to give a better price when 

 he shalbe assured to have tyme to vend it, and his 

 majesties customes noe way diminished, since the 

 exportation of all the tobacco already made, and 

 likely to be made this next crop, will in all proba- 

 bility (notwithstanding the cessation) equall the 

 quantity of that which hath beene in the like tyme 

 exported ; fTor which consideration oflen message 

 hath beene sent from the assembly of Virginia to 

 the lieutenant generall of Maryland, to establish a 

 stint or totall cessation from planting in both gov- 

 ernments who have communicated the same to 

 the assembly of that province, they being equally 

 sensible of their pressures, have enacted a cessa- 

 tion with provisoeof the concurrence of this coun- 

 try of Virginia and Carolina, fibr which causes 

 it is thought fitt to enact, and be it enacted by the 

 governour, councell and burgesses of this present 

 grand assembly and the authority thereof that from 

 and after the ffirst day of flebruary which shall be 

 in the yeare of our Lord 1666 till the ffirst of ffeb- 

 ruary which shalbe in the yeare ofour Lord 1667, 

 noe tobacco shalbe any wayes sovvne. sett, plant- 

 ed, or tended, directly or indirectly within the gov- 

 ernment of Virginia," &c. — p. 224-5. 



The ne.xt is another example of misdirected at- 

 tempts to encourage industry. 



" Whereas the present obstruction of trade and 



