Basic Farming in Colonial Williamsburg

Source:

“Historic Farming.” History.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Nov. 2015. <http://www.history.org/Almanack/life/trades/traderural.cfm>.

Quote:

“Farmers worked the land and generally grew cash crops of tobacco and wheat, as well as a variety of other food and fiber crops like corn, oats, cotton, flax, and hemp. They raised livestock, including beef, dairy and oxen cattle, horses, hogs, sheep, and poultry.”

“Today, Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Farmers do the work of middling farmers using 18th-century methods at Great Hopes Plantation. Here they work heirloom-variety crops of corn, tobacco, wheat, and fiber crops. Powerful oxen haul manure and pull plows through the fields, while work horses cultivate the weeds from between the plants. Historic farmers also tend poultry and hogs…”

Paraphrase:

-There food consisted mainly of corn, oats, cotton, flax and hemp.

-They raised livestock including: beef, dairy and oxen cattle, horses, hogs, sheep and poultry.”

-They still use methods from the 17th and 18th century today in Colonial Williamsburg.

My Ideas:

Is it true that the poorer you are, the smaller your garden or farm is? Most people in the 17th and 18th century lived off of their farm so if it is true that the poorer you are the smaller you garden is, then people who didn’t have lots of money or power would probably be hungry all the time. Usually everyone except the people who were in the gentry class lived off of their farm and couldn’t import anything over from England. The gentry class could buy things in England because of their amount of money and power. Usually because they either had a lot of power, or they sold tobacco in England. They still use the methods that people used in the 17th and 18th century because they want to feel, learn and show people how they lived back then. They still use oxen to plow through the fields instead of plows of other machines. They still use work horses to cultivate all of the weeds in between plants. They also keep all of these animals still and take care of them so they can experience everything that people in the colonial era did.