Captain John Smith summarized the condition of the colony in 1629 in
these words:
Master Hutchins saith, they have 2,000 cattle, and about 5,000
people; but Master Floud, John Davis, William Emerson, and
divers others, say about five thousand people, and five thousand
kine, calves, oxen, and bulls; for goats, hogs, and poultry;
corne, fish, deere, and many sorts of other wild beasts; and
fowle in their season, they have so much more than they spend,
they are able to feed three or foure hundred men more than they
have.
Starving times as a rule were over. Periods of short rations occurred
infrequently and then only in times of disaster such as the aftermath
of the Indian massacre of 1622 or when the planters became so
engrossed in growing tobacco that they neglected to plant maize or
other grains. Each succeeding crop was new wealth, something that had
not existed before. Gradually, harvest after harvest, the colonists
were able to add to their possessions additional tools and equipment.
He was a shiftless man indeed who could not provide ample food for
his own needs. The history of Virginia during colonial times was
intimately connected with the tobacco crop. The general welfare of
the people rose and fell with the value placed on the leaf in
England.