him,
but not all of it, for he turned fifty-one goats into the thickets to
feast upon the vines and undergrowth. When he died, in 1638, he
bequeathed his herd of goats to his stepchildren and to his wife.
Although he left other possessions, including a feather bed, two
blankets, a rug, a bolster, a warming-pan, a parcel of pewter, three
iron pots, two brass kettles, a brass basin, a copper kettle, three
pairs of sheets, one dozen napkins, a table-cloth, a looking-glass, a
chest, ten barrels of corn and three shoats, along with his plantation,
yet the goats had been his first thought. He carefully designated thirty
for his stepchildren and twenty-one for his wife. The present may
measure the worth of the goats in the early seventeenth century by this
scrupulous legacy.

THE INDEPENDENT PLANTER

In establishing the colony, the Virginia Company had projected the idea
that the people who settled the land would, in a short time, be able to
supply their daily needs. In addition, they would ship to England raw
materials needed there, and absorb in return articles produced by the
English craftsmen, and such imports from foreign lands as were surplus
in England. Thus, a brisk trade was anticipated, and did develop, but
not in the direction forecast in the beginning.

As the forests were rapidly being depleted in England, wood and wood
products were among the greatest needs. Accordingly, report was made in
1624, that, by 1608 and 1609, such woods as cedar, cypress and black
walnut had been exported from the Colony, and both clapboard and
wainscoting, fashioned in Virginia, had been sent to the Mother Country,
along with soap ashes, yielding the necessary potash, an ingredient for
soap-making scarce in England. In addition, pitch, tar, iron ore,
sturgeon and glass were exported and sassafras, growing wild in
Virginia, was in demand in England for tea making. Ere long, of course,
the colonists found that tobacco was a lucrative crop, and put their
time, attention and efforts in developing a grade of tobacco, which
would bring a good price. Inspection before exportation helped in
maintaining the standard.

However, in cultivating tobacco, the Virginia planter also promoted
assiduously a program of self-sufficiency for his plantation, so that
what was needed in daily living was at hand or could be had from a
neighbor. Practically every plantation, both large and small, had
livestock and produced milk and butter. Sufficient qua