at was being opened up for cultivation in the western
part of Fairfax and in Loudoun County at about the same time. Like
most of the open land below the fall line, the tract which Moss
assembled had first played a part in the tobacco civilization that had
dominated the life of Northern Virginia from 1650 to 1750.[22] During
the eighteenth century, tobacco planters of the Virginia Tidewater
had turned inland, clearing the forested area of the Piedmont to bring
virgin land into production of their crop. Their actions were the
result of many contributing causes--the tendency of tobacco to wear
out the soil, the need for timberland to supply the rising demand for
barrels and hogsheads, the introduction of new implements of
husbandry, the plentiful supply of enslaved or indentured labor, and,
of course, the presence of cheap land in the western part of the
county.[23]

Expansion required capital, however, and many of the Tidewater tobacco
planters whose holdings had been created through proprietary grants
obtained the necessary funds by selling off portions of their
Tidewater holdings. By the middle of the eighteenth century, few of
the large land grants remained intact and what remained to the
original owners was interspersed with smaller farms and old fields
gradually being taken over by scrub pine.[24] At the same time, the
increase of warehouses and riverside facilities, the growth of roads
overland between the principal river landings and the gaps in the Blue
Ridge Mountains, and a steadily rising number of tradesmen and
artisans setting out for themselves upon completion of their indenture
periods all combined to offer a prospect of success, if not affluence,
to one who was willing to work the land diligently and prudently.

Many of the small farmers of the Tidewater remained as committed
to tobacco as the great planters had been. Others turned to
diversification of crops. Corn (maize) was grown in conjunction with
tobacco from the beginning of settlement in Northern Virginia and
diversification simply called for increasing its role. In the
eighteenth century, wheat was introduced as a substitute for tobacco
to restore the land and gradually became adopted in place of tobacco
as a farm staple. As commercial relations with England became more
difficult after 1750, and were completely disrupted during the War
for Independence, tobacco planters in great numbers shifted to
production of foodstuffs to meet domestic demand