Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/586

 laborers had been offered fifty acres for every one he introduced, but an insignificant proportion of that class which formed the principal basis of the head right would have found their way to Virginia, and in the absence of that class, the destruction of the forest on a great scale would have been deferred for many decades. The head right ensured an enormous immigration of agricultural laborers, the tract of fifty acres being looked upon as a partial compensation at least for the expense of bringing in the servant. The West was settled by an influx of population which, under the homestead law, became at once a community of small landowners, but in Virginia in the seventeenth century, the mass of the inhabitants were men and women who had no interest in the soil. In spite of the fact that the average size of the patent sued out was not very considerable, the face of the country was in possession of only a section of the people.

The valuable inducements held out to men of means to become landowners in Virginia led to the emigration of a large number of Englishmen who represented the most refined elements of the mother country, and who were therefore anxious to introduce into their now communities all of those economic conditions to which they were accustomed on their native soil. They were compelled to follow a new system of agriculture, because they had not only to overcome the obstacle of a heavy growth of forest, but also to adapt their action to the needs of the tobacco plant, but in all the other departments of their economic affairs they adhered as far as possible to the methods and customs of England. This was especially observable in the interiors of their dwelling-houses and in the general conveniences of their daily lives.

It is doubtful whether there was ever a new community that obtained its supplies, whether natural or manufactured,