Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/510

 later for nineteen, and in the second levy, in 1699, for thirteen.

It was not due entirely to the attacks of wolves that the flocks of sheep in the Colony were so small. No systematic effort was made to supply them with fodder or litter, or to protect them in winter from the weather; but in this respect the Virginians were only less negligent than the farmers of England. It was not until 1681, that it was discovered in the mother country that these animals could be supported on turnips when driven from the fields by frost and snow, and that ten acres sown in the seed of this vegetable would furnish them a greater abundance of food than an hundred in ordinary pasture. The sheep of the Colony were of middling size, exposure doubtless having the same influence in reducing their proportions as was observed in the case of horses and horned cattle; nevertheless, their wool was pronounced by capable judges from England to have been as fine in quality as the wool of the flocks ranging in the vicinity of Leominster. It is a fact of interest that this commodity was cheaper in Virginia in the seventeenth century than in England. This was due to the small use made of it in the Colony in the manufacture of clothing, as compared with the consumption in this form in the mother country. The average price of wool in the latter did not exceed twelve pence. In 1691, nine and one-half pounds were valued in Elizabeth City County at three shillings and nine