216 Perspectives in Microbiology 



Again I was fortunate to be able to satisfy my curiosity 

 by a study of the excellent article entitled "Agriculture in 

 New Jersey," written by the former secretary of the Col- 

 lege of Agriculture of Rutgers University, Dr. Carl R. 

 Woodward, as part of the monograph: New Jersey: A His- 

 tory, published in 1930. The article certainly makes good 

 reading, especially for a Dutchman! 



At the risk of becoming guilty of nationalistic boasting, 

 I cannot refrain from borrowing some data from this emi- 

 nently reliable source. By 1630, several Dutch farmers had 

 settled on the west bank of the Hudson River and estab- 

 lished plantations or "boueries," as they were then called, 

 a word which, strangely, still survives as the name of one 

 of Manhattan's slums. A Dutchman by the name of Pauw 

 obtained title to the greater part of the territory now 

 known as Hudson County, at that time called "Pavonia," 

 after him. He must have developed his holdings energet- 

 ically and successfully, for in 1632 it was reported that the 

 "boueries" on the west side of the river were in a pros- 

 perous condition, the settlers growing grain and raising 

 cattle and poultry. Many of these settlements were, how- 

 ever, wiped out by the Indian massacres in 1643 and 1654, 

 only to be revived in 1660, better precautions being taken 

 against Indian raids. 



With the passing of New Netherlands to English con- 

 trol, the Dutch moved inland along the river courses. 

 Among these, special mention is made of the Raritan, and 

 it seems likely that the very spot on which we are assembled 

 once formed part of one of the farms that in 1680 were 

 reported as 'Very fine and yielding well." 



Woodward gives a long list of the vegetables, fruit, and 

 flower plants that were imported in the seventeenth cen- 

 tury by the settlers from the Netherlands and that proved 

 to thrive exceedingly well in the fertile New Jersey soil. 

 Woodward adds that "the Dutch were the first people to 

 grow the European grains in the New World on a profit- 



