Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/450

 CHAPTER VII

AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT, 1685-1700

years had now passed since the day on which the colonists for the first time had sowed wheat in the soil of Virginia, this being the earliest seed that was planted after possession was taken of Jamestown Island. What changes had agriculture in this interval produced upon the face of the country? If the descriptions of contemporaneous observers are deserving of credence, the Colony, even where its population was densest, bore the aspect of a wilderness, owing to the enormous disproportion between the area in cultivation and the area still in a state of nature. The high lands were concealed by a heavy growth of trees, and the low grounds consisted largely of forest and marsh. I have already referred to the motives impelling the planters to engross as extensive tracts as they could secure; these motives were the absolute need of a virgin soil in the production of tobacco in perfection in that age when artificial manures were unknown, and the need equally as great of a wide surface for the support of cattle which had to obtain their own subsistence at every season in the year. It was asserted at this time that although the population of Virginia did not exceed the number of inhabitants in the single parish of Stepney, a part of the city of London, nevertheless they had acquired ownership in plantations that