eding stocks were of ordinary
quality and the lack of care given them contributed to their
inferiority. Predatory animals such as wolves, bears, panthers and
wild cats exacted a heavy annual toll of young animals.

Until Governor Dale constructed his miles of picket fences there was
nothing to keep the animals from wandering up into the highlands
where the colonists did not dare to venture. In spite of the
handicaps all classes of domestic animals increased in numbers when
not slaughtered for food. This was especially true of swine.

[Illustration:

1 _Hoscyamin Perimianus._ Tabaco or Henbane of Peru.

2 _Sana Sancta Indorum._ Tabaco of Trinidada.

Two varieties of tobacco as pictured by Gerard in 1597. The seeds of
these two varieties were taken to Virginia by the Jamestown
Settlers.]

[Illustration: Photo by Thomas L. Williams

Trenching Implements, Seventeenth Century]

[Illustration: Thomas L. Williams, Photo

Seventeenth Century Plows]

SWINE

Hogs contributed more to the material welfare of the Jamestown Colony
than historians have generally recognized. Hogs have many advantages
over other breeds of livestock. They multiply much faster than any
other domestic animal except poultry. They make faster gains and
double the weight for the food consumed than do cattle, sheep or
goats. When slaughtered, hogs dress out about 75 percent edible meat,
as compared with 55 to 60 percent for cattle. When given wide open
range in humid climates such as prevailed in the Tidewater, they do
fairly well without other feed than what they can find for
themselves.

In summer, at Jamestown, they obtained most of their living in the
numerous fresh-water swamps. Tuckahoe, a flag-like swamp plant, with
an enormous root system, was their favorite hot weather forage. The
roots of tuckahoe, often as large as a man's arm, contain a
crystalline acid that burns the mouth of a human being like fire.
After a few trials, hogs seem to relish it. While tuckahoe is not a
fattening feed, hogs eating it make satisfactory gains in weight.

In the fall when the acorns and nuts ripened, the hogs put on weight
at a rapid pace. The woods were stocked with oak, hickory, chestnut,
beech, chinquapin, and persimmon trees and shrubs, the fruits of
which were all grouped under the general term _mast_. There is one
difference between pork produced from grain-fed hogs and those
fattened on mast. The lard of the latter group melts at a tempe