In the article, "Englishmen Transplanted," the author talks about the transition of the settlers from Englishmen to Americans. Clarence Lester Ver Steeg mentions in the article various dissimilarities between the Old World and the New World. The pattern change was immediate when it came to the cultivation of crops and animal husbandry. Animal husbandry is the management and care of farm animals by humans for profit, in which genetic qualities and behavior considered to be advantageous to humans. The types of government between the colonies and America were quite different also. .
Compared to the new world, in England land was scarce, labor was abundant, and capital was available. These factors were reversed in the new world. In the New World, no money could be spared to invest in tools or equipment, labor was dear, but land was abundant. Hence, land was exploited to save scarce capital and labor. Fundamental conditions made exploitation an American characteristic. In England, the ownership of land was treasured. In English America, where land was the principal resource, its distribution influenced the development of the New England land and the Chesapeake colonies. In Massachusetts Bay, land was distributed in townships. This was a procedure imitated by the other colonies of New England. Outside of the village lands were allotted for farming and grazing. In the Chesapeake colonies land was granted to individuals instead of groups. "A man interested in obtaining land requested a warrant from either the governor's office or the official clothed with the governors power of granting warrants. A survey was made and if confirmed, the land patent was granted".
Headrights became the most advantageous avenue to the acquisition of land in the Chesapeake colonies. A headright is a legal grant of land to settlers. During the final stages of the Virginia Company period, a man who agreed to go to the New World was rewarded with a grant of fifty acres of land.
