Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/490

 turned under by means of the harrow, the teeth of which were frequently of iron. The implement in use in Virginia in the seventeenth century was the same as that of the English farmers, which consisted in general of five parallel bars of wood, two yards in length, which were kept firmly in position by cross-pieces. In these the teeth were inserted. The use of the weeding harrow was probably confined to the maize and tobacco fields.

The testimony is very favorable regarding the productiveness of the lands in Virginia which at this time were put down in wheat, a condition which was to be expected, as the culture of tobacco has always been found to be the most admirable preparation for the culture of this cereal. Clayton declares that the yield ranged from fifteen to thirty for every bushel that was sown, while in England it did not exceed eight. Jones, writing in the early part of the eighteenth century, estimated the return in the proportion of sixty, and in some cases even as high as eighty bushels. In 1773, when nearly one hundred years had passed since Clayton&#8217;s visit to the Colony, the ratio of increase on the lowlands was placed at twenty-five, thirty, and thirty-five bushels, and on the highlands at eight, ten, and fifteen.

In harvesting wheat, both the reap-hook and the sickle were used, the number in the possession of individual planters being often very notable. In the inventory of the Richards personal estate, there were thirty of the former