Colonial Williamsburg
Gardens

September 15, 2009

FAQs: Did the colonists practice crop rotation?

In the early years of colonization, Virginia planters practiced a slash and burn type of agriculture. With a seemingly endless supply of land, they simply exhausted the fields and moved on.

By the end of the 18th century, however, some crop rotation practices began to appear, although they were generally marginal by today’s standards.

Duke de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt of France visited Virginia in 1796 and recorded in his “Travels through the United States” the general crop practices in Virginia:

Tobacco field“Pursuant to the ancient rotation, tobacco was cultivated four or five successive years; the land was then suffered to lie fallow, and then again succeeded crops of tobacco.”

He also said that once the land no longer produced tobacco, the plantation owner switched to grain crops:

Wheat harvest“. . . the common rotation begins with wheat, followed by Indian corn, and then again wheat, until the exhausted soil loses every productive power, the land is then abandoned, and the cultivator proceeds to another, which he treats and abandons in the same manner, until he returns to the first, which has in the meantime recovered some of its productive faculties.”

Thomas Mann Randolph, Thomas Jefferson’s son-in-law, developed elaborate rotation plans that alternated crops on 10-acre parcels. In 1793, he recorded in that in the previous six years he planted “Clover, Turnips, Oats, Pumpkin, Barley and finally Clover again.”

These more sophisticated crop rotation schemes, aided by the pasturing of animals on cropland to manure the soil, made it possible to productively farm the same land for generations.

Video Extra

Watch farmer Wayne Randolph in Tobacco in the Colonies.

July 6, 2009

FAQs: What’s the oldest tree in Williamsburg?

The oldest tree in the Historic Area is an English Yew in Custis Square, the pasture across the street from the Public Hospital. It is believed to have been planted in the mid-1700s by John Custis, the father-in-law of Martha Park Custis, future wife of George Washington.

The oldest boxwood dates to 1858 – 1862 and is the English boxwood growing in the Everard garden. Since the beginning of the Restoration, great pains have been taken to protect these shrubs.

June 16, 2009

FAQs: Were there street trees planted in eighteenth-century Williamsburg?

Were there street trees planted in eighteenth-century Williamsburg?

Written documents suggest there were probably few, if any, street trees planted in the colonial capital. Surviving accounts by eighteenth-century visitors contain comments about the sandy, dusty streets that were here at that time (see below). Other comments refer to the ability to see Williamsburg from a great distance, and of the city being situated upon an “open plain.”

This evidence, however, does not indicate that no large trees existed in the city. Some trees would have probably been left to grow in the town’s ravines, and a 1782 map of Williamsburg drawn by an unknown Frenchman indicates trees equally spaced along the Palace Green. However, most trees found in eighteenth-century Williamsburg were most likely small fruit trees grown in back lots and orchards.

Accounts of the early Williamsburg landscape:

“. . . There is one handsome street in it [Williamsburg], just a mile in length, where the view is terminated by a commanding object each way. . . . is very disagreeable to walk in, especially in summer, when the rays of the sun are intensely hot, and not a little increased by the reflection of the white sand, wherein every step is almost above the shoe, and where there is no shade or shelter to walk under, unless you carry an umbrella. . .” John F. D. Smyth – 1770

“22 Oct. . . . A short account of Williamsburg: This city consists of approximately 300 houses, and is fairly built up for a mile in length. The city lies upon an agreeable open plain. While it is not, it is true, so very large, one may nevertheless count it among the most beautiful cities of America.” Johann Conrad Doehla – 1781

“. . . .The place [Williamsburg] lies in a pleasant, open plain, and even from a distance commends itself to the traveller by a particularly cheerful and stately appearance, and the impression is confirmed on entering the town. One may count this among the handsomer towns of America, even if not among the larger, the number of houses being only about 230.” Johann David Schoepf – 1783