ergyman visiting in
Virginia. He relates that before the seeds were sown the planters
tested the seed by throwing a few into the fire; if they sparkled like
gunpowder, they were declared to be good. The ground was chopped fine
and the seeds, mixed with ashes, were sown around the middle of
January. To protect the young plants, the seedbed was usually covered
with oak leaves, though straw was used occasionally. Straw was thought
to harbor and breed a fly that destroyed the young plants, and if straw
was used, it was first smoked with brimstone to kill this fly. Oak
boughs were then placed on top of the leaves or straw and left there
until the frosts were gone, at which time they were removed so that the
young tender plants were exposed to allow them to grow strong and large
enough to be transplanted.

Post-Revolutionary plantbed practices were essentially those of the
early colonial planters, with slight modifications as they became more
experienced. In choosing plantbed sites, a sunny southern or
southeastern exposure on a virgin slope near a stream was preferred.
This enabled the planter to water his plantbed in case of a drought.
The practice of burning the plantbeds over with piles of brush and logs
prior to seeding was no doubt a seventeenth century custom, but the
first available record was found in an account written during the
Revolution.

To clear land for cultivation, the settlers felled the trees about a
yard from the ground to prevent the stump from sprouting and to cause
the stump to decay sooner. Some of the wood was burnt or carried off
and the rest was left on the field to rot. The area between the stumps
and logs was then broken up with the hoe. In their ardent quest for
more cleared land, the planters frequently cultivated old Indian
fields, which the Indian had abandoned for one reason or another. Such
land was always found to be of the best soil. Clayton stated that after
the land was chopped fine, hills to set every plant in were raised to
"about the bigness of a common Mole-hill...." A later account by
William Tatham, relates that the hills were made by drawing a round
heap of earth about knee high around the leg of the worker, the foot
was then withdrawn and the top of the hill was flattened with the back
of the hoe.

In 1628 the hills were made at a distance of four and one-half feet,
the distance was reduced to four feet by 1671, and by 1700, three feet
became and remained the usual distance.