Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/502

 time one nine years old was appraised in York at two pounds and ten shillings, this difference being attributable to some inequality in their relative excellence.

There is no reason to think that horses were at this period in as common use as oxen as draught animals, and this is partially explained by the fact that it was less difficult to obtain food for the latter in winter. There are many indications, however, that horses had a prominent place in the economy of the plantation. Collars, in some cases made of flag, in others of ticking, are frequently entered in the inventory of an estate. Both collars and traces were ordered by planters in Virginia from their English merchants. The cart of the seventeenth century, which was drawn indiscriminately by oxen and horses, was sometimes spoken of as a tumbril. The body appears to have been always manufactured in the Colony, but the wheels were frequently imported from England, their rims being shod with iron. A wheel thus protected was such a valuable article that it was often specifically bequeathed. It was occasionally the subject of a suit. The value of a pair included in an inventory in 1686, was two pounds and five shillings sterling, just five shillings less than that of a similar pair in 1670, a difference possibly due to the condition of the respective wheels.