. The story of agriculture in the United States. g, Englishmen thought, if we could get fromVirginia the products we now buy from those countries?So they began the first year to plant pineapples andoranges. Frenchmen were brought over to begin graperaising, with a view to the making of wine, and a lawwas passed compelling every family to raise ten vinesand to learn vine-dressing. The Virginians also triedto raise figs, lemons, almonds, olives, ginger, and sugarcane, but without success. The fact is that our eastern i8 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES coast has a climate quite different from th
. The story of agriculture in the United States. g, Englishmen thought, if we could get fromVirginia the products we now buy from those countries?So they began the first year to plant pineapples andoranges. Frenchmen were brought over to begin graperaising, with a view to the making of wine, and a lawwas passed compelling every family to raise ten vinesand to learn vine-dressing. The Virginians also triedto raise figs, lemons, almonds, olives, ginger, and sugarcane, but without success. The fact is that our eastern i8 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES coast has a climate quite different from that of southernEurope. The winds from the north and west come toVirginia over a great land area and are much colder inwinter than those that prevail in the same latitude inEurope; consequently, the semi-tropical products do notthrive here. The Virginians also tried very hard to produce silk,and there were great expectations of enormous profitsfrom this source. The mulberry tree grew wild in Vir-ginia, and silkworms were brought from Europe; some. Silkworm, Mulberry Leaves, Moth, and Cocoons of these were frost-bitten in the winter. The law obligedevery man to plant six mulberry trees annually forseven years. Later, a premium of five thousand poundsof tobacco was offered to every person producing onehundred pounds of silk; this not having any result, thepremium was raised to ten thousand pounds of tobaccofor fifty pounds of raw silk, and still later fifty pounds oftobacco were offered to the producer of one pound ofsilk. One reason for the failure of these plans is the factthat the care of silk cocoons and the winding of rawsilk required much attention and some skill. But when THE FIRST FARMERS OF VIRGINIA 19 all the members of the farmers family were fully occupied in the tobacco and grain fields, who was left to care for the silk? In the countries of southern Europe there were plenty of hands for such work, but not so in Virginia. Other products that Enghshmen wanted very much
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