of the century, took steps to extend the culture of the plant in Virginia. There are many indications, however, that this material was spun in considerable quantities in the households of the people. In a letter written in 1685 to one of his correspondents in England, Colonel Byrd refers to the rivalry among his dependents as to who should spin the most cotton, and this was not an uncommon case, as is revealed by the number of spinning-wheels included in the inventories, the use of which could not have been confined to wool and flax.[1]
There was always a stronger opposition in England to the manufacture of woollen cloths in Virginia than to the manufacture of linen. The author of the Nova Britannia, which was written in the early part of the century for the purpose of advancing the interests of the Colony by calling the attention of the English people to the many advantages it offered, was careful to depreciate its adaptability to sheep husbandry. God, he declared, had denied sheep to Virginia, and yet among its population there was a rapidly increasing demand for clothing. He predicted that this would in the end cause the Colony to become a market of great importance for the sale of garments of English manufacture, and thus be the means of restoring the English trade in cloth, now fallen into a state of decay in spite of the anxiety in the mother country to reestablish it.[2] From an early period, woollen manufactures were carried on in a small way in the homes of the planters, the quantity thus made being restricted rather by the paucity of sheep than by the limited facilities for production. Colonel Mathews, perhaps the leading citizen of Virginia in 1646,
