122 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



alewife, in enriching their corn fields. Thomas Morton 

 wrote, in 1632, of Virginia: — 



" There is a fish (by some called shadcls, by some allizes) that 

 at the Spring of the yeare passe up the rivers to spawn in the ponds, 

 ■& are taken in such multitudes in every river that hath a pond at 

 the end that the inhabitants doung their grounds with them. You 

 may see in one township a hundred acres together, set with these 

 fish, every acre taking 1,000 of them, & an acre thus dressed will 

 produce and yeald as much corne as three acres without fish." 



This passage is very interesting, as showing the use of 

 menhaden as a source of fertility in Virginia two hundred 

 and sixty years ago. 



In Governor Bradford's ' ' History of Plimoth Plantation " 

 an account is given of the early agricultural experience of 

 the Plymouth colonists. In April, 1621, at the close of 

 the first long, dreary winter, he wrote : — 



"They (as many as were able) began to plant their corne, in 

 which service Squauto (an Indian) stood them in great stead, show- 

 ing them both ye manner how to set it and after, how to dress and 

 tend it. Also he tould them excepte they got fish & set it with (in 

 these old grounds) it would come to nothing, and showed them yt 

 in ye middle of April they should have store enough come up ye 

 brooke by which they begane to build, and taught them how to 

 take it." 



In George Mourt's "Journal of the Plimoth Colony," 

 London, 1622, this passage is found : — 



" We set this spring some twenty acres of Indian corn and set 

 some six acres of barley and pease and according to the manner of 

 Indians, we manured our grounds with herring or rather shads, 

 which we have in great abundance and take with great ease at our 

 doors. Our corn did prove well and God be praised." 



Again, in the Plymouth Colony records for 1633 we find 

 that at the General Court held the 28th of October, " in the 

 ninth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord Charles, by 

 the Grace of God, King of England," etc., this order was 

 passed : — 



" That whereas God, by His Providence has caused the fish called 

 alewives or herring in the midst of the place appointed for the 



