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.
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FAQs: Were there street trees planted in 18th-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.”
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