2 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



New Enu;lan(l. TVc must remember that they cxchani^cd a 

 country far advanced in civilization, — and notwithstanding its 

 rude tillage and its large tracts of uninclosed moors, probably 

 better cultivated than any other on the globe, — for one entirely 

 new to them, with a climate and soil unlike any which they had 

 known before. They were to begin a life in which their pre- 

 vious experience could alford them little or no aid, in a wilder- 

 ness which Avas to be sul)dued by their own hands in the midst 

 of a thousand obstacles. The system of cultivation which 

 they had learned and practised in their own land, would not 

 serve them here. They were to start anew, and acquire, pain- 

 fully and laboriously, the knowledge which was applicable to 

 their new situation. If we find their progress to be slow, let 

 us not wonder that it Avas so ; we should rather wonder that 

 they advanced at all, or even that they did not perish in the 

 wilderness amid the privations and the sufferings of winter. 



For many months after their arrival, they had no beasts of 

 burden ; when at last a few cows Avere brought over from the 

 mother country,* they were poorly fed on coarse meadow hay, 

 and often died from exposure and want of suitable food, or fell 

 a prey to the wolves and the Indians. Owing to the difficulties 

 and expense of importation, the price was so high as to put 

 them beyond the reach of many, even in moderate circum- 

 stances. A red calf soon came to be cheaper than a black 

 one, on account of the greater probability of its being mistaken 

 for a deer and killed by the wolves. When cows were so high 

 as to sell in 1G36, at from tAventy-five to thirty pounds sterling, 

 and oxen at forty pounds a pair, a quart of new milk could be 

 bought for a penny, and four eggs at the same price. 



It should be borne in mind, also, that the cattle of that 



ime, even in England, were not to be compared with the 



beautiful animals now seen there. The ox of that day was 



small, ill-shaped, and in every way inferior to the ox of the 



• The first cattle -were imported by Edward Winslow, in the ship Charity, 

 March, 1024. Having been sent out as agent by the Plymouth Colony, he brought 

 over four animals, three of wliieh were heifers. One authority says they arrived 

 in the ship Ann, the first voyage of which was made in 1623 ; but there can 

 be no doubt that the cattle referred to, at the time of the distribution of cattle in 

 1627, came in a subsequent voyage made by that vessel. 



