of the four-course rule now began to be observed here and there. Hemp was cultivated to some extent, and artificial grasses were sown. The practice of these judicious principles was apparently confined to a few for a period of an hundred years.[1] Arthur Young in the eighteenth century admitted that the Dutch system, which was the groundwork of the most improved forms of agriculture in modern times, had not been generally adopted in the kingdom. It was not until 1649, that the means employed in the present age of restoring the fertility of exhausted soils was even to a slight degree put into practice in England. About this time there are some indications of the use of clover and lime with this object in view. In 1665, the seeds of clover were sown in some parts of England for the purpose both of furnishing food for cattle and of keeping up the productiveness of the land.[2]
It would be too much to expect that the small advance which had been made in the mother country should be reflected in the general system of tillage prevailing in Virginia, especially in its relation to the improvement of the condition of the soil under cultivation. Indeed, no steps of importance were taken in the Colony to restore the fertility of lands that had been overworked.[3] Recourse was occasionally had to the cow-pen as the means of manuring particular spots,[4] but this was necessarily limited in its application, being employed principally by tenants who were compelled to make the most of ground which had been used for a number of years. In the records of deeds in the county courts, as well as in
- ↑ Rogers’ History of Agriculture and Prices in England, vol. V, pp. 99, 100, 783; Macaulay’s History of England, chap. III.
- ↑ Improver Improved.
- ↑ Hartwell, Chilton, and Blair’s Present State of Virginia, 1697, p. 7; Glover in Philo. Trans. Royal Soc., 1676-1678, vols. XI-XII, p. 628.
- ↑ Clayton’s Virginia, p. 21, Force’s Historical Tracts, vol. III.
