456 AGRICULTURE. 



ucts of the New England fisheries and of the West India planta- 

 tions, to barter for his tobacco, cotton, wheat, or corn. The 

 neighboring waters swarmed with many varieties of wild fowl, 

 and abounded with fish, oysters., soft crabs, and turtle, while in 

 the woods was an abundance of game. 



Tobacco became the staple product of Virginia soon after the 

 first settlement of the British colonists, and although many and 

 stringent laws were enacted to prevent its cultivation, little 

 attention was paid to any other crops beyond what was needed 

 for home consumption. Attempts were made to encourage other 

 branches of rural industry. But the Virginia landowners pre- 

 ferred the exhausting tobacco plants, with a continuous cropping, 

 shallow plowing, and no supplies of fertilizers, until every parti- 

 cle of nourishment had been drawn from the soil by the plants, 

 or washed out by the rains. The implements used were small 

 plows and heavy hoes ; and when the tobacco had been gath- 

 ered, cured, and packed into hogsheads, these were rolled to the 

 nearest inspection wharf. The roads were bad, and there were 

 but few. wagons, so a pole and whifHetrees were attached to each 

 hogshead, by an iron bolt driven in the centre of each head, and 

 it was converted into a large roller. For many years the places 

 for deposit and inspection of tobacco on the river were called 

 " rolling houses." 



King James the First, prompted doubtless by his antipathy 

 to "the Virginia weed," and "having understood that the soil 

 naturally yieldeth store of excellent mulberries," gave instruc- 

 tions to the Earl of Southampton to urge the cultivation of silk 

 in the colony, in preference to tobacco, "which brings with it 

 many disorders and inconveniences." In obedience to the com- 

 mand, the earl wrote an express letter on the subject to the 

 governor and council, in which he desired, them to compel the 

 colonists to plant mulberry trees, and also vines. Accordingly, 

 "as early as the year 1623, the colonial assembly directed the 

 planting of mulberry trees; and in 1656 another act was passed, 

 in which the culture of silk is described as the most profitable 

 commodity for the country, and a penalty of ten pounds of 

 tobacco is imposed upon every planter who shall fail to plant at 

 least ten mulberry trees for every hundred acres of land in his 

 possession. In the same year a premium of 4000 pounds of 



