176 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



The sottlcmcnt of this valley commenced in the early part of the last cen- 

 tury. The fir.st European settlers emigrated mainly from Switzerland and the 

 adjoining parts of Germany, interspersed with French Huguenots, who sought 

 iu this new country .a refuge from the persecution which oppressed them ia 

 their native land. They were principally agriculturists, and, from necessity as 

 well as choice, devoted their attention to the same vocation in their new home. 



Their first care was to clear the ground of the heavy growth of timber that 

 extended over the whole region ; for here were no prairies covered with rich 

 grasses, furnishing abundant nourisliment for stock without labor and without 

 price, and rei|uiring but little cultivation to produce the grain that compftses the 

 princijial sustenance of man, and the domestic animals subservient to his com- 

 fort, couvenience, and pleasure. The laborious task of clearing away the 

 forest was maiidy efiected by the use of the axe and the action of fire. The 

 huge logs were collected together in piles, the interstices filled with the branches, 

 ■when the application of a torch soon reduced the whole mass to ashes, which 

 served to ameliorate and fertilize the soil. The next object was to break up 

 the ground, and prepare it for the reception of the seed, from which the abun- 

 dant harvest was anticipated. 



In the accomplishment of this, the horse was found a useful and convenient, 

 if not indispensable, assistant, for without the aid of this useful animal the cul- 

 tivation of the soil must have been very limited. The horses used by those 

 early settlers were no doubt the progenitors of the far-famed " Conestoga 

 horse," which in after times became so extensively known and spoken of; but 

 of what particular stock or strain tliey were, or whence they came, history and 

 tradition are equally silent, or afford no reliable information. 



As Chester county and the vicinity of Phili\delphia were partially settled 

 and considerably improved before any settlement was efiected in the Conestoga 

 valley, it is quite probable that the first immigrants to this valley derived their 

 first stock of horses from their nearest neighbors inhabiting the above-named 

 localities ; and it requires no great stretch of imagination to suppose that the 

 first settlers of Pennsylvania who came here with William Penn, or some of 

 their immediate successors, brought some of those useful animals with them 

 from England, fi om which the whole stock of horses in the country at that time 

 were derived. But it was not only in the cultivation of the soil that the horse 

 was so essential to the immigrants to this (then new) country, 1'here being 

 then no flouring mills in the county of Lancaster, the inhabitants were com- 

 pelled to carry their grain to the Brandywine mills, near Wilmington, in the 

 State of Delaware, some forty miles distant, to be manufactured into flour for 

 family use. 



This was a laborious task, that could hardly have been executed without the 

 aid of the useful animal that forms the subject of this essay. Thes(^ important 

 services were fully appreciated by those honest and industrious settlers, and 

 the horse, who was a companion of their toil, and so essentially necessary to 

 their success and prosperity, became to them an object of great attention and 

 (I had almost said) affection. Just, humane, and generous, this rural people 

 treated this trusty and faithful domestic with a degree of consideration seldom 

 bestowed upon any of the brute creation. Their superior intelligence restrained 

 them from that ardent affection, approaching to adoration, Avhich the wild Arab 

 of the desert is said to entertain for his courser ; and, though the horse was not 

 an inmate of the same apartment that sheltered his wife and children, as w^e 

 are told is sometimes the case with the Bedouin Arab, he was provided with 

 comf )rtable quarters, at no great dist;ince from his master, and partook gener- 

 ously of the cereal grain and nutritions grasses which his own strength and 

 labor contributcid so materially to produce. 



Being thus well fed, protected from the cold and inclemency of the weather 

 when not actually in service, and never overworked or abused, this horse, under 



