but also from New England. In August, 1690, Byrd requested Mr. Hutchinson of Boston to send him several to be used on his own plantation.
The Act requiring a certain number of acres to be cultivated in Indian corn and wheat still remained on the statute book, and there is unmistakable evidence that the law was strictly enforced.[1] The methods of preparing the soil for maize did not differ essentially from those which have been noted in the case of wheat, the plough, the hoe, and the spade being used indiscriminately for this purpose. The grains of Indian corn were probably removed from the husk at this time not entirely by the naked hand.[2] It commanded ten shillings a barrel, but there were local instances of its sale at six shillings, its condition in these cases being perhaps inferior.[3]
There were still intermittent efforts to stimulate the production of other commodities. In 1691, every tithable person in the Colony was required to make or cause to be made one pound of dressed flax and one pound of dressed hemp, or two pounds of either.[4] Andros, who was appointed to the administration of affairs in 1692, was very much interested in cotton, and a considerable area was planted in it under the influence of his encouragement, which was prompted by a desire to establish the manufacture of cloth in Virginia.[5] The cultivation of cotton,
- ↑ See Ibid., vol. 1684-1687, p. 84, Va. State Library.
- ↑ Records of Henrico County, vol. 1688-1697, p. 145, Va. State Library. In Elizabeth City County Records, vol. 1684-1699, Va. State Library, we find a reference to a “cradle to shale corn.”
- ↑ Records of York County, vol. 1684-1687, p. 240, Va. State Library.
- ↑ Hening’s Statutes, vol. III, p. 81.
- ↑ Berkeley, in his reply to the interrogatories of the English Commissioners, 1671, declared that one of the bad effects of the Navigation Act had been the discouragement of cotton culture in Virginia. Hening’s Statutes, vol. II, p. 516.
