890 Deane Phillips 



trade of the West Indies, it has seemed advisable to give some attention 

 also to the growth and development of the latter industry. 



SOURCE AND EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF NEW ENGLAND HORSES 

 It is not at all certain that to the early colonists New England 

 appeared as stern and inhospitable a shore as we are sometimes led to 

 believe. Hardships there were in plenty, and much real privation 

 and want, but, on the other Hand, the country gave to them bountifully 

 in many ways of its own. Not the least of its advantages in the eyes 

 of the first settlers was the comparative abundance of pasture and 

 grasses suitable for hay, which assured an easy support for livestock 

 in numbers sufficient for the colonists' needs. 



This feature of the country is frequently mentioned in letters written 

 to friends in England by the early settlers and in the accounts of 

 travelers. Thus the Reverend Mr. Higginson (1),^ writing in 1629, 

 describes the abundance of grass ^' which groweth everywhere, both 

 verie thicke, verie longe, and verie high in divers places ' ' ; and in 

 regard to livestock he records further, "it do prosper and like well 

 this countrie." Another writer (2), possibly too ardent in his admira- 

 tion for the new land, compares the abundance of pasturage to " Hun- 

 garia." Josselyn (3), in his visits to New England, also seems to 

 have been impressed with its possibilities along this line, and writes in 

 1675 of the " broad vallies supplied with ample forage as well as that 

 to be found in clearings in the forests." 



The native grasses which furnished this forage were mainly of two 

 sorts — foul-meadow grass and herd-grass, or timothy (4). English 

 grasses were introduced at an early date and were found to grow well 

 in the new land (5). Both the native grasses made good hay, and this 

 fact rendered it possible to keep livestock with little difficulty in spite 

 of the rigors of the New England winters. The colonists were thus 

 enabled to increase freely the number of their cattle and horses in 

 proportion as they found them useful. As is shown later, they did not 

 fail to avail themselves of this opportunity, and the increase that took 

 place was a rapid one. 



* Numbers in parenthesis refer to tlie list of citations beginning on page 930. Tlie 

 sources cited are given ui full in the list beginning on page 930. 



