THE PROBLEM OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 61 



water the first trip hammer in the colony, with which he manufactured 

 scythes, shovels, axes, hoes, and other implements, for which that 

 place has since enjoyed a deserved reputation. 



The tidewater regions of Maryland and Virginia and the Caro- 

 linas were originally settled by the cavalier aristocracy of England, 

 with their servants and their slaves. Next came the Scotch merchants 

 and mechanics, and French Huguenots of high character and attain- 

 ments. In later years, the unsuccessful rebellions of the elder and 

 younger Pretenders forced large numbers of Scotch Jacobins to seek 

 new homes on the western continent. Many indentured white serv- 

 ants, and some transported convicts, were also sent over from Eng- 

 land. 



The feudal system was transplanted to Virginia, and the royal 

 grants of land gave the proprietors baronial power. The Maryland 

 and Virginia estates were large, extending far back in the country 

 from their fronts on the Chesapeake Bay or its tributaries, near which 

 the buildings were located. Tidewater was at every cavalier planter's 

 door, and ships from England brought him his annual supplies of mer- 

 chandise in exchange for his crop of tobacco, while smaller crafts came 

 with the products of the New England fisheries and of the West India 

 plantations 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 preferred the exhausting tobacco plants, 

 with a continuous cropping, shallow ploughing, and no supplies of 

 fertilizers, until every particle of nourishment had been drawn from 

 the soil by the plants, or washed out by the rains. The implements 

 used were small ploughs and heavy hoes; and when the tobacco had 

 been gathered, 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 whiffletrees were attached to each hogs- 

 head 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." 



