Think of it this way. An acre is 4,840 square
yards. (A football field is 5,000 by
comparison.) If you drop a plant every three
feet apart you get 4,840 plants an acre, or about
5 acres of plants. (Corn is planted much closer
than three feet apart; I can't remember about
tobacco.) Another consideration is the amount of
time involved. If you set 24,000 plants in 30
days (800 per day), you would have to drop about
one per minute average for 12 hours. That is
not very strenuous work for farmers.
On Fri, 14 Dec 2001 14:52:50 -0500 Henry Wiencek
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I'm trying to get a sense of the amount of work
> done by George Washington's slaves and I am
> coming up with a number I find hard to believe.
> At his plantation in King William County in April
> 1763 he recorded 190,000 corn holes and 170,000
> tobacco hills. His roster (see below) mentions
> 15 slaves or "Negro sharers" on the place with
> 2 overseers, which means each slave did 24,000
> hills and holes! This number seems impossible.
> Can anyone shed light on this?
>
> Many thanks,
> Henry Wiencek
> Charlottesville
>
> >From "The Diaries of George Washington," vol I,
> p. 309: At my Plantation in King William
>
> 15 Negroe Sharers
> 2 Overseer 17 in all
> 126 head of Cattle besides Calves--9 of this
> spring 52 head of sheep besides Lambs--13
> 8 Sows for Breeding 16 for Porkers at the Fall
> 18--of 6 Months old 32--of 6 Weeks Ditto
> 28 young Pigs 102 in all
>
> M 190 Corn holes good Tale.
>
> M 170 Tobo. Hills Do. Do.
>
> M 190 CORN HOLES:
>
> Editor's note: That is, 190,000 corn holes. GW
> frequently used the roman numeral M to indicate
> one thousand.
>
> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe,
> please see the instructions at
> http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
--
Frank E. Grizzard, Jr.
Associate Editor
Papers of George Washington
University of Virginia
[log in to unmask]
http://www.virginia.edu/~feg3e
http://www.virginia.edu/gwpapers
To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
|
