Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/611

 middle and at the beginning. The reason for the great and continuous demand for laborers throughout this period had its origin in the physical peculiarities of the country. The men who obtained a patent to fifty acres of land there, stood in a much less favorable position than the farmer of modern times who has acquired a homestead right in the soil of a prairie in Illinois, Iowa, or Kansas. In the latter case, the tract when first occupied was entirely denuded of forests and only needed the application of the plough and hoe to produce abundant crops. The family of the owner furnished the whole amount of the assistance which he needed. In Virginia, on the other hand, the very anxiety of the colonists to secure a title to the richest land as promising the heaviest returns in tobacco from cultivation, increased the difficulties confronting them in making a permanent settlement, because the growth of timber was in proportion to the fertility of the soil. This was notably the case in the valleys of the streams, along the banks of which the line of plantations was extended at first. In removing the forest, this being the supreme obstacle to be surmounted, the settler required the aid of others whom he could direct and control in carrying through the work to be performed. The natural character of tobacco, which soon exhausted the most fertile land, demanded the continuation of this assistance even after a large area of ground had been cleared of trees. The person who had sued out a patent to fifty acres of land was in a few years compelled to sue out a patent to an additional tract of the same extent, in order to obtain