104 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



permission was granted to erect sheep gates, or lengths of 

 movable fence to be set up at night as protection against 

 wolves and dogs. 



Clothing. 



Next to food and shelter, the great exigency of the early 

 • (tiers was of course clothing sufficient not only to cover 

 ieir nakedness, but to keep them warm in this cold climate. 

 In this respect, as in some others, they were content to 

 receive from the customs of their barbarous neighbors sug- 

 gestions which were not without use to them in their pecul- 

 iar circumstances. The original clothing of the Indians was 

 from the furs and skins of wild animals. Much skill was 

 evinced in the dressing of buffalo, deer, elk and other skins 

 for that purpose ; for external wear they were prepared with 

 the hair or wool on, and for under garments the smaller 

 skins were made into a kind of " chamois " leather by remov- 

 ing the hair and dressing them with the brains of the animal, 

 which rendered them very soft and pliable. A squaw would 

 thus prepare eight or ten skins in a day. Morton says the 

 Indians " made their skins into very good leather, making 

 them ' plume ' and soft ; the moose skins they commonly 

 dress bare and make them wondrous white ; the moccasins 

 and leggings were usually made from the moose skins." 

 The colonists made much use of these materials, which com- 

 ported well with their rugged mode of life and the severity of 

 the climate. Indeed, they were not unaccustomed to the use 

 of similar materials in their native country; for in England, 

 even in that day, leather dressed as bull' and in other style-, 

 and worn as doublets, breeches or vests, formed no incon- 

 siderable part of the clothing of some classes, and for some 

 purposes was worn by the nobility. These sober and frugal 

 materials continued in use till after the era of independence, 

 and garments wholly or in part of buckskin or other leather 

 could be found in the wardrobes of even the wealthy men of 

 that day. Deer-kins dressed were then worth from three 

 shillings and sixpence to seven shillings each. 



In 1747, Joseph Calef, a leather dresser of Charlcstown, 

 was robbed by burglars, who took a variety of sheepskins 

 dressed for clothing, some cloth colored for breeches very 



