Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/612

 the virgin soil which was necessary for the production of the staple in the largest quantity, in that age when no manures were used in enriching the ground. However small the scale on which he cultivated the earth, his agricultural life consisted largely in a persistent attempt to clear away the forest. When the woods on the first plantation secured had been cut down, and the fertility of the soil exhausted, he proceeded to remove the trees from the face of the second plantation, and this course of taking up and opening new lands was prolonged for an indefinite term of years, unless he should become the owner, by original patent or by purchase, of an extensive tract in one body, furnishing him an ample area for new grounds in its own boundaries. But even under these circumstances, the task of constantly destroying the forest remained. In either situation, he needed the assistance of laborers. Without this assistance, he was helpless. If every owner of land in the Colony had been forced to rely upon himself in eradicating the forest and tilling the soil, the plantation system, which came into existence in Virginia so soon after Jamestown was founded, would never have arisen. The surface of the Colony would have been covered with a succession of small estates, many of which would have fallen into a condition of absolute neglect as soon as their fertility had disappeared, their owners having sued out patents to virgin lands in other localities as likely to yield large returns to the industry of the cultivator. But for the introduction of the indented servant into the Colony upon the threshold of its settlement, its progress would have been slow. Virginia, without laborers from England and without slaves, would have become a community of peasant proprietors, each clearing and working his ground with his own hands and with the aid of his immediate family. The unique social conditions