Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/278

 spite of the primitive methods of tillage then prevailing, seven or eight barrels of corn in addition to a barrel of peas and beans, two unusually nourishing vegetables. It was thought by Rolfe, that an industrious man whose attention was not diverted from his work by other occupations, could tend, without imposing too far on his strength, four acres of maize and one thousand tobacco plants. According to the same authority, one man could provide grain sufficient for five men and apparel for two, by the profit which he would derive from the sale of his tobacco. At this time two active laborers could produce a crop of the latter commodity worth fifty pounds sterling in the English market. Richard Brewster claimed that in one year he had, with the assistance of three men, secured two thousand eight hundred pounds of tobacco and one hundred bushels of grain. William Capps had been still more successful. Three boys in his service had produced three hundred pounds of tobacco and one hundred and eleven barrels of Indian corn, without receiving aid from himself.