OF THE EDIBLES, POTABLES, AND FUEL IN VIRGINIA.

§ 70. The families being altogether on country seats, they have their graziers, seedsmen, gardeners, brewers, bakers, butchers and cooks, within themselves. They have plenty and variety of provisions for their table; and as for spicery, and other things that the country don't produce, they have constant supplies of them from England. The gentry pretend to have their victuals dressed, and served up as nicely, as if they were in London.

§ 71. When I come to speak of their cattle, I can't forbear charging my countrymen with exceeding ill husbandry, in not providing sufficiently for them all winter, by which means they starve their young cattle, or at least stint their growth; so that they seldom or never grow so large as they would do, if they were well managed; for the humor is there, if people can but save the lives of their cattle, though they suffer them to be never so poor in the winter, yet they will presently grow fat again in the spring, which they esteem sufficient for their purpose. And this is the occasion, that their beef and mutton are seldom or never so large, or so fat as in England. And yet with the least feeding imaginable, they are put into as good case as can be desired; and it is the same with their hogs.

Their fish is in vast plenty and variety, and extraordinary good in their kind. Beef and pork are commonly sold there, from one penny, to two pence the pound, or more, according to the time of year; their fattest and largest pullets at sixpence a piece; their capons at eight pence or nine pence a piece; their chickens at three or four shillings the dozen; their ducks at eight pence, or nine pence a piece; their geese at ten pence or a shilling; their turkey hens at fifteen or eighteen pence; and their turkey cocks at two shillings or half a crown. But oysters and wild fowl are not so dear, as the things I have reckoned before, being in their season the cheapest victuals they have. Their deer are commonly sold from five to ten shillings, according to the scarcity and goodness.

§ 72. The bread in gentlemen's houses is generally made of wheat, but some rather choose the pone, which is the bread made of Indian meal. Many of the poorer sort of people so little regard the English grain, that though they might have it with the least trouble in the world, yet they don't mind to sow the ground, because they won't be at the trouble of making a fence particularly for it. And, therefore, their constant bread is pone, not so called from the Latin panis, but from the Indian name oppone.

§ 73. A kitchen garden don't thrive better or faster in any part of the universe than there. They have all the culinary plants that grow in England, and in greater perfection than in England. Besides these, they have several roots, herbs, vine fruits, and salad flowers peculiar to themselves, most of which will neither increase nor grow to perfection in England. These they dish up various ways, and find them very delicious sauce to their meats, both roast and boiled, fresh and salt; such are the Indian cresses, red buds, sassafras flowers, cymlings, melons and potatoes, whereof I have spoken at large in the 4th chapter of the second book, section 20.

It is said of New England, that several plants will not grow there, which thrive well in England; such as rue, southernwood, rosemary, bays and lavender; and that others degenerate, and will not continue above a year or two at the most; such are July flowers, fennel, enula campana, clary and bloodwort. But I don't know any English plant, grain or fruit, that miscarries in Virginia: but most of them better their kinds very much by being sowed or planted there. It was formerly said of the red top turnip, that there, in three or four, years time, it degenerated into rape; but that happened merely by an error in saving the seed; for now it appears that if they cut off the top of such a turnip, that has been kept out of the ground all the winter, and plant that top alone without the body of the root, it yields a seed which mends the turnip in the next sowing.

§ 74. Their small drink is either wine and water, beer, milk and water, or water alone. Their richer sort generally brew their small beer with malt, which they have from England, though barley grows there very well; but for want of the convenience of malthouses, the inhabitants take no care to sow it. The poorer sort brew their beer with molasses and bran; with Indian corn malted by drying in a stove; with persimmons dried in cakes, and baked; with potatoes; with the green stalks of Indian corn cut small, and bruised; with pompions, and with the batates canadensis, or Jerusalem artichoke, which some people plant purposely for that use; but this is the least esteemed of all the sorts before mentioned.

Their strong drink is Madeira wine, cider, mobby punch, made either of rum from the Caribbee islands, or brandy distilled from their apples and peaches; besides brandy, wine, and strong beer, which they have constantly from England.

§ 75. Their fuel is altogether wood, which every man burns at pleasure, it being no other charge to him than the cutting and carrying it home. In all new grounds it is such an incumbrance, that they are forced to burn great heaps of it to rid the land. They have very good pit coal (as is formerly mentioned) in several places of the country; but no man has yet thought it worth his while to make use of them, having wood in plenty, and lying more convenient for him.