Horse Raising in Colonial New England 929 



we could supply them, and sent an agent to this country to purchase 

 them on such terms as he could . . . He commenced buying and 

 shipping till all the good ones were sent off " (178). 



It is easy to understand that such a large and unexpected demand 

 from Cuba, without restriction as to price, might deplete 

 the breed very seriously. But if the Narragansett planters did thus 

 actually kill the goose that laid the golden eggs by shipping off all 

 their breeding stock, it must be that there were other factors at work 

 which made them willing to sell. It might indicate, for example, that 

 their experience in attempting to sell in their former markets after 

 the war, had convinced them that the end of the earlier export trade was 

 in sight. 



There are, however, other obvious reasons which probably contributed 

 to the dispersal of the sturdy little pacers which had so long been a 

 profitable commodity. They were not beautiful at best ; they were small, 

 scarcely more than fourteen hands high, and their gait, while desirable 

 for saddle purposes, did not fit them for driving to advantage in team 

 or harness (179). All these things undoubtedly worked against the 

 Narragansetts as the roads in the colonies became better, wheeled 

 vehicles came into use, and there was need for larger and heavier animals 

 for harness and draft. The pacers were, in short, of most value under 

 frontier conditions, and as the region along the coast became more 

 settled there is evidence that they were actually dispersed to remoter 

 regions, especially to Canada, Kentucky, and Tennessee. It is in these 

 places that the pacing blood seems to have been preserved in the midst 

 of the influx of Englih^h' thoroughbred stock beginning about 1750 

 (180). 



Thus closed the final chapter in New England's leadership in the 

 exportation of at least one product of an agricultural nature — a leader- 

 ship w^hich had been held undisputed for more than a century ; which in 

 Ihe lean years of her early commerce had eked out to good purpose 

 the exchanges of New England with the West Indies and by which she 

 was enabled in turn to purchase English goods; which had aided in 

 the opening and settlement of her lands remote from the coasts and 

 harbors; and which finally had a part in the development in the Narra- 

 gansett district of a social and economic organization based on agri- 

 culture, which was comparable to any other found in continental 

 America during the colonial period. 



