ORIGIN OF "NATIVE" STOCK. 13 



authority, au order was passed forbidding the destruction of 

 domestic animals, on pain of death to the principal, burning 

 of the hand and cropping the ears of the accessory, and a 

 sound whipping for the concealer of the facts. Such being 

 the nature of the encouragement to the raising of stock, the 

 number of cattle in the Virginia colony increased to about 

 five hundred head in 1620, and to about thirty thousand in 

 1639, while the fact that the number had decreased to twenty 

 thousand in 1648, would seem to indicate that the restriction 

 had been removed. Many also had been sent to the colonies 

 further north. 



FIRST CATTLE IN NEW ENGLAND. 



The first cattle that were brought to New England arrived 

 at Plymouth in 1624, in the ship Charity. They were im- 

 ported for the colony by Gov. Winslow, and consisted of 

 three heifers and a bull. They possessed no uniformity of 

 color, being black, black and white, and brindle. In 1626 

 twelve cows were sent to Cape Ann, and in 1629 thirty more, 

 while in 1630 about a hundred were imported for the 

 "governor and company of the Massachusetts Bay in New 

 England." In the meantime a hundred and three cattle and 

 horses were imported into New York from the island of 

 Texel, Holland, by the Dutch West India Company ; and in 

 1627, the settlements along the Delaware were supplied by 

 the Swedish West India Company, so that by the year 1630 

 the number of horned cattle in all the colonies must have 

 risen, by importations and by natural increase, to several 

 thousands, to which were added in 1631, 1632, and 1633, 

 many yellow cattle from Denmark, brought over by Captain 

 John Mason, who was engaged in extensive lumbering 

 operations along the Piscataqua River, in New Hampshire. 



These were the sources from which our common or "native" 

 cattle sprang. The earlier importations were undoubtedly 

 more extensive than any subsequent ones, the colonists rely- 

 ing upon the natural increase to supply their wants, but 

 there is historical evidence to show that there was more or 

 less interchange of stock between the various colonies at an 

 early date, and that this resulted in a mixture of blood, such 

 as we find it now in our common stock. 



