Evolution of Iborttculture 



yeeld. So that these two places may 

 containe twice as many people as are yet 

 in new England: there being as yet 

 scarce any inhabitants in these two spa- 

 cious places. These be all the Townes 

 that were begun, when I came for Eng- 

 land, which was the 15 of August 1633." l 



Wood, in his description of the plan- 

 tation at Boston, makes no allusion to 

 William Blaxton, the first settler and hor- 

 ticulturist upon the peninsula, except to 

 mention that " on the South side of the 

 River on a point of land called Blaxtons 

 Point, planted Mr William Blackstone." 



It has been affirmed that the early colo- 

 nists found this peninsula thinly wooded, 

 most of the forest, except on the neck, 

 having been burned by the Indians for 

 the purpose of clearing the land and 

 planting it with corn. Interesting as 

 are the well-known incidents in the life 

 of Blaxton, we are here concerned only 

 with those which are appropriate to his 

 horticultural work. Coming to Shawmut 

 1 New England Prospect, pp. 41-48. 

 94 . .:> 



