Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/491

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT

465

implements. Five reap-hooks and one sickle were among the articles bequeathed in the will of Dr. Francis Haddon in 1674. The personalty of Captain William Marshall included twelve sickles, and that of John Thomas, eleven sickles and reap-hooks.^[1] The cradle was employed as early as the sixteenth century, but only in cutting barley and oats. Wheat was reaped throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuryies.^[2]

In describing wheat culture in Virginia about the middle of the century, Williams states incidentally that the grain could be trodden out without any difficulty by means of oxen, from which it is to be inferred that this was a more popular method than the flail.^[3] Towards the end of the century, the sieve was employed to remove the chaff, this implement being imported not only from Old

↑ See Records of Henrico County, vol. 1677-1692, for Richards' Inventory; Records of York County, vol. 1671-1684, p. 99; Ibid., vol. 1664-1672, p. 63, Va. State Library; Records of Elizabeth City County, vol. 1684-1699, p. 224, Va. State Library.
↑ Tusser's Hundred Good Points of Husbandry; Loudon's Encyclopædia of Agriculture, §§ 405, 509; Rogers' History of Agriculture and Prices in England, vol. IV, p. 47.
↑ Virginia Richly Valued, p. 13, Force's Historical Tracts, vol. III. According to Bishop, the custom of treading out grain was followed in Maryland and Virginia as late as 1790. "Horses were preferred and the advantages of this mode over that of the flail as used in the Northern States and England at that time, were, that an entire crop could be beaten out in a few days, thus securing it from the ravages of the fly. Three thousand bushels could be secured thus in ten days, which would employ five men 100 days with the flail. Treading floors were sometimes shifted from field to field, but a permanent floor of good waxy earth which became smooth, hard and glossy by use, was preferred. The floors were made from 40 to 130 feet in diameter, usually 60 to 100, with a path or tract at the outer circumference 12 to 14 feet wide, in which the sheaves were laid. The horses were led around by halters in ranks equidistant from each other, and at a sober trot." Bishop's History of American Manufactures, vol. I, p. 32. See American Museum, vol. VII, p. 64.

VOL I.——2 H

[1] See Records of Henrico County, vol. 1677-1692, for Richards' Inventory; Records of York County, vol. 1671-1684, p. 99; Ibid., vol. 1664-1672, p. 63, Va. State Library; Records of Elizabeth City County, vol. 1684-1699, p. 224, Va. State Library.

[2] Tusser's Hundred Good Points of Husbandry; Loudon's Encyclopædia of Agriculture, §§ 405, 509; Rogers' History of Agriculture and Prices in England, vol. IV, p. 47.

[3] Virginia Richly Valued, p. 13, Force's Historical Tracts, vol. III. According to Bishop, the custom of treading out grain was followed in Maryland and Virginia as late as 1790. "Horses were preferred and the advantages of this mode over that of the flail as used in the Northern States and England at that time, were, that an entire crop could be beaten out in a few days, thus securing it from the ravages of the fly. Three thousand bushels could be secured thus in ten days, which would employ five men 100 days with the flail. Treading floors were sometimes shifted from field to field, but a permanent floor of good waxy earth which became smooth, hard and glossy by use, was preferred. The floors were made from 40 to 130 feet in diameter, usually 60 to 100, with a path or tract at the outer circumference 12 to 14 feet wide, in which the sheaves were laid. The horses were led around by halters in ranks equidistant from each other, and at a sober trot." Bishop's History of American Manufactures, vol. I, p. 32. See American Museum, vol. VII, p. 64.

[1]

[2]

[3]