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AN AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITY. 59
An agricultural community almost exclusively, and yet, farming was
very rudely and imperfectly done, except in places here and there, such
as the Wye farm, or ex-Governor Sharpe's brave place, or at Ogle's
palace, or Rousby Hall, and others of the old manorial sites, where good
taste, good judgment and fondness for agriculture as an art conspired with
wealth, luxury and,, the sense of beauty to produce surprising results. The
average husbandry was of a primitive fashion. The plough was little used
except for the breaking up of new ground in the spring and fallow in the fall.
It played an altogether secondary part to the hoe, which did well-nigh all the
work of cultivating corn and tobacco, save what women's fingers did in the
way of weeding; and the cheapness of labor made this dull, slow fashion of
tillage still profitable. The hoe was not the light, sharp steel implement of
the present day, but a great clumsy lump of iron, often rudely made by the
blacksmith on the plantation, so contrived that it would not be sharp and
could not be broken. The handle was thick at the butt as a weaver's beam
and wedged with wood in the collar of the hoe. This huge unwieldy affair
protected the young tobacco plant while it ensured that the earth would be
well stirred around it. Three or four deep chops about each plant, and then,
if there were any weeds nearer than six inches to it, they must be taken out
by hand, for there was the overseer in sight, on horseback or on foot, with
keen eyes under his broad-brimmed hat watching that each hand did his
task—so many hills of corn or tobacco in so many hours—and did it well.
There too was his cowhide tucked under his arm, and his gun perhaps
strapped to his back. He might perchance shoot a few squirrels,1 or a wolf
might appear in the openings of the woods or at the end of the long rows
or—anyhow, the gun was a protection to him against ignorant Cuffee and
malicious convict alike. It was not, perhaps, his duck gun, nor a light
breech-loader like the gimcracks of the day, but a serviceable gun for all that,
if the flint and priming were in good condition. It was not a rifle, for only
the deer-shooters and Indian shooters in the frontier used them. Neither was
it a double-barrelled gun, but it might very well be an old bell-mouthed
tower musket that had seen service at Blenheim or Fontenoy, or a regular,
blunderbuss, like that with which Mr. Chew armed his servant man when he
went gallantly forth to fight the Reverend Bennett Allen in a duel which
never came off.
Returning to the hoe: its weight and strength were necessary, for, excepting in some favored localities, such as the alluvials of West River, very little
tobacco land was found in 1770 that was free from roots and decaying
stumps. The average upland in those days even could not be made to bear
1 There was a bounty of two pounds of forward to pay his taxes, to precede the pay-
tobacco paid for squirrel scalps and crows ment by producing each year three squirrel
head in nearly every county, and so destructive scalps or crow's heads for every taxable assessed
do these little animals, now so scarce, appear to to his charge, and he was find. two pound of
have been, that in 1728, a general law was tobacco for every scalp or head that his account
enacted, requiring every tax-payer, on coming fell short.
| Title | History of Maryland - 2 |
| Creator | Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas) |
| Publisher | J. B. Piet |
| Place of Publication | Baltimore |
| Date | 1879 |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000084 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | AN AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITY. 59 An agricultural community almost exclusively, and yet, farming was very rudely and imperfectly done, except in places here and there, such as the Wye farm, or ex-Governor Sharpe's brave place, or at Ogle's palace, or Rousby Hall, and others of the old manorial sites, where good taste, good judgment and fondness for agriculture as an art conspired with wealth, luxury and,, the sense of beauty to produce surprising results. The average husbandry was of a primitive fashion. The plough was little used except for the breaking up of new ground in the spring and fallow in the fall. It played an altogether secondary part to the hoe, which did well-nigh all the work of cultivating corn and tobacco, save what women's fingers did in the way of weeding; and the cheapness of labor made this dull, slow fashion of tillage still profitable. The hoe was not the light, sharp steel implement of the present day, but a great clumsy lump of iron, often rudely made by the blacksmith on the plantation, so contrived that it would not be sharp and could not be broken. The handle was thick at the butt as a weaver's beam and wedged with wood in the collar of the hoe. This huge unwieldy affair protected the young tobacco plant while it ensured that the earth would be well stirred around it. Three or four deep chops about each plant, and then, if there were any weeds nearer than six inches to it, they must be taken out by hand, for there was the overseer in sight, on horseback or on foot, with keen eyes under his broad-brimmed hat watching that each hand did his task—so many hills of corn or tobacco in so many hours—and did it well. There too was his cowhide tucked under his arm, and his gun perhaps strapped to his back. He might perchance shoot a few squirrels,1 or a wolf might appear in the openings of the woods or at the end of the long rows or—anyhow, the gun was a protection to him against ignorant Cuffee and malicious convict alike. It was not, perhaps, his duck gun, nor a light breech-loader like the gimcracks of the day, but a serviceable gun for all that, if the flint and priming were in good condition. It was not a rifle, for only the deer-shooters and Indian shooters in the frontier used them. Neither was it a double-barrelled gun, but it might very well be an old bell-mouthed tower musket that had seen service at Blenheim or Fontenoy, or a regular, blunderbuss, like that with which Mr. Chew armed his servant man when he went gallantly forth to fight the Reverend Bennett Allen in a duel which never came off. Returning to the hoe: its weight and strength were necessary, for, excepting in some favored localities, such as the alluvials of West River, very little tobacco land was found in 1770 that was free from roots and decaying stumps. The average upland in those days even could not be made to bear 1 There was a bounty of two pounds of forward to pay his taxes, to precede the pay- tobacco paid for squirrel scalps and crows ment by producing each year three squirrel head in nearly every county, and so destructive scalps or crow's heads for every taxable assessed do these little animals, now so scarce, appear to to his charge, and he was find. two pound of have been, that in 1728, a general law was tobacco for every scalp or head that his account enacted, requiring every tax-payer, on coming fell short. |
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