Horse Raising in Colonial New England 921 



tioii, they had little difficulty in achieving this result, for in 1670 a 

 letter from Major Mason to the Commissioners of the Colony of Con- 

 necticut stated that the land was at that time mainly taken up with 

 farms, some of Avhich were five, six, and even ten miles square (155). 

 John Hull's plan in 1677 for horse breeding on a large scale to get 

 " large and fair horses and mares " for the AVest Indies trade is noted 

 elsewhere and is another evidence of these large-scale operations. Hull's 

 scheme was a rather ambitious one. He planned to build a stone wall 

 across Point Judith Neck, which would have inclosed a peninsula 

 approximately five miles long and having an average width of about a 

 mile. The object of the wall was to keep out mongrels and strays so 

 that the planters would thus be able to breed up a stock of horses of 

 superior characteristics for shipment to the Indies. Hull goes even 

 further and suggests to his partners, ' ' We might have a vessel made for 

 that service, accommodated on purpose to carry off horses to 

 advantage " (156). 



The wealth of the district increased steadily up to the time of the 

 Revolution, and full use was made of the opportunities for animal hus- 

 bandry of an extensive sort. In 1755 Douglass notes that for New Eng- 

 land, " the most considerable farms are in the Narragansett country," 

 and that the largest of these '' milks 110 cows, cuts about 200 load of 

 hay, makes about 13,000 weight of cheese besides butter, and sells off 

 considerably of calves, fatted bullocks, and horses" (157). In 1747 

 South Kingston, the center of the Narragansett region, was assessed 

 for the public colony rate a sum only a little less than that for Provi- 

 dence and about half that for Newport (158) ; in 1780 it had become 

 by far the richest town in Rhode Island, paying double the sum 

 assigned to Newport and two-thirds more than Providence (159). Most 

 of this wealth was apparently derived from agricultural operations. 



Their cattle and the output of their dairies were an important source 

 of revenue to the Narragansett planters. But by far the most noted 

 product of the region — at least toward the middle of the eighteenth 

 century — was a breed of saddle horses which they developed. ^^ These 



" The preference for pacers appeared at an early date and obviously is the cause 

 of the development of the Narrag-ansetts themselves through selection and breeding. 

 Thus Waite Winthrop writes from Boston in 1684 concerning some horses consigned to 

 him for sale : " I am offered £30 but if the two paced well they would bring nearer 

 £50, for such is difference from ordinary jades if they do but pace well." (Winthrop 

 Papers; Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, 5th ser., vol. 3, p. 446.) 



