THE PROBLEM OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 59 



Dorsetshire and Wiltshire, the English homes of the Puritans ere they 

 made their exodus to a transatlantic Canaan, are even now remark- 

 able for their almost total absence of the usual signs of trade and 

 manufactures; and we are informed by Bancroft that those who first 

 went to Holland were anxious to emigrate again because they "had 

 been bred to agricultural pursuits," yet were there "compelled to 

 learn mechanical trades." 



This desire on the part of the Puritans that "New England" 

 should be an agricultural community was strikingly manifested by the 

 corporation of Massachusetts Bay, whose charter extended from a 

 line three miles south of Charles River to another three miles north 

 of "any and every part" of the Merrimac. Each contributor and 

 each stockholder received two hundred acres of land for every fifty 

 pounds sterling paid in, while stockholders and others who emigrated 

 at their own expense received fifty acres for each member of their 

 family and each "indented servant." This shows that it was a rural 

 home in this land of freedom, and not town lots or semiannual divi- 

 dends that these liberal adventurers sought, and we find further con- 

 firmation of their agricultural proclivities in the inventories of the 

 supplies sent by the corporation to the new colony. "Vyne planters " 

 are mentioned usually after "ministers"; then come hogsheads of 

 wheat, rye, barley, and oats, unthreshed ; beans, peas, and potatoes ; 

 stones of all kinds of fruit; apple, pear, and quince kernels; hop, 

 licorice, and madder roots; flax and woad seed; currant plants, and 

 tame turkeys. Cattle were imported by the colonists, not only from 

 various parts of England, but from Holland, Denmark, and the Span- 

 ish Main, forming a noble foundation for that "native stock" which, 

 when carefully reared and well fed, is at least equal to many of the 

 vaunted imported breeds. Horses, sheep, swine, and goats were also 

 imported from Europe in large numbers. Neither was horticulture 

 neglected, for we find that Governor Endicott had a vegetable garden 

 and vineyard in 1629, and two years afterward he planted the famous 

 pear orchard of which one venerable survivor still bears the patriarchal 

 honors. 



The immigrants found that Boston had "sweet and pleasant 

 springs and good land affording rich corn grounds and fruitful gar- 

 dens "; but as their numbers and the numbers of their cattle increased, 

 they formed colonies in various directions, especially in "Wanne- 

 squam-sauke" (now Essex County), for amid its "pleasant waters" 

 were unwooded meadows suitable for pasturage and for grass cutting, 



