very night to looke to
the mending or sharpening of the plough-irons, and the repairing
of the plough and plough-geares, if any be out of order, for to
deferre them till the morrow, were the losse of a daies worke,
and an ill point of husbandry.

APPENDIX II

THE TRANSPORT OF GRAIN

In the early years at Jamestown, much grain was shipped from England
for the use of the colonists. The extract, which follows, is from
Markham's _Farewell to Husbandry_, 4th edition, 1638. The term "corn"
as used by Markham does not mean maize (Indian corn), but wheat,
barley, rye, or oats.

And first for transportation of graine by sea, it is two waies
to be done, as either in great quantities for trade and the
victuallyng of other nations, or in smaller quantity for
victualling the men in the ship, prepared for a long and tedious
voyage.

For the transporting of graine for trade in great quantities, it
is to be intended the voyage is seldom long, but from neighbor
to neighbor, and therefore commonly they make close decks in the
ships to receive the graine, faire and even boorded, yet if such
decks be matted and lined both under and on each side, it is
much the better, and this matting would be strong and thinne;
there bee some which make the decks only of mats, and sure it is
sweet, but not so strong as the boord, therefore the best way of
transportation is to have strong boorded deckes well matted, and
then spreading the corne of a reasonable thicknesse, to cover it
with matting againe, and then to lay corne on it againe, and
then mats againe, that betweene every reasonable thicknesse of
graine a mat may lie, the profit whereof is, that when the corne
with his owne heate and the working of the sea shall beginne to
sweate, which sweat for want of aire to drie it up, would turne
to putrifaction, then the mats thus lying betweene, will not
only exhale and sucke up the sweate, but also keep the corne so
coole and dry, that no imperfection shall come unto it: and here
is to be noted, that these mats should rather be made of dry
white bents, than of flagges and bulrush, for the bent is a
firme, dry, crispe thing, and will not relent or sweat of it
selfe, but the flag or bulrush is a spungy and soft substance
which is never empty of his own and other moystures.

Now