Early American Agriculture


noted in cultivation for hay near New York in 1749 by Peter
Kalm, but it probably was brought in before this by early
colonists in Maryland.
 Bluegrass was identified in Montreal by Kalm in 1751. It was
probably taken by the French a half century earlier to Indiana
and Illinois and spread from there to Ohio and Kentucky.
Orchard grass, not considered of special value in England, won
popularity in America where its cultivation seems to have started
in Virginia prior to 1760. Nut grass was growing in the colonies
before 1775. The nuts on its roots made it desirable for hogs,
but it is now considered a pest in the South. At the same time,
crab grass was grown in the southern colonies.5
 INTRODUCTIONS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
 Indigo cultivation for dye had been encouraged for at least half
a century before it was grown to any considerable extent. It
apparently awaited the arrival of superior varieties and favorable
market conditions to assume economic importance. The success-
ful cultivation of indigo was assured when George Lucas, gover-
nor of the island of Antigua in the West Indies, sent some seeds
to his daughter, Miss Eliza Lucas. Her experiments in 1742 were
so successful that in a few years the production of indigo became
one of the main industries of South Carolina. In later years,
cotton, also of West Indian origin, supplanted indigo as an
important staple. (3)
 Sugar cane was introduced early in the eighteenth century
into Louisiana, but almost a century of experiment and trial
passed before sugar was successfully produced. Some of the first
experiments were made between 1726 and 1744. The intro-
duction of 1751 was instrumental in bringing about the com-
mercial production of sugar in Louisiana. It arrived in a troop-
ship carrying sugar cane sent by the Jesuits at San Domingo, to
other Jesuits in Louisiana. Many difficulties were encountered
in attempting to produce sugar from the transplanted cane, and
it was 1794 before the first successful crop of sugar was produced
commercially in Louisiana by Etienne de Bore.
 Cotton was not cultivated commercially in the United States
until about 1770. Some 138,328 bales of the Sea Island variety
 In 1782 Thomas Jefferson listed some of the forage crops of Europe which
were grown in Virginia during his lifetime: lucerne, St. Foin, burnet, timothy,
orchard grass, red, white, and yellow clover, greensward, bluegrass, and crab grass.