SECRETARY'S REPORT. ' 121 



arived and more dayly expected, w*^ the consideration of 

 supplying the fishing trade and others, doe therefore order and 

 declare, that no person or persons shall export out of this juris- 

 diction any wheate or wheate-flower, after the 25*'' of this 

 instant m" upon penalty of confiscation thereof unto the 

 country, one fowerth part whereof shalbee to the informer. 

 This order to continue in force untill the Gen'll Court or 

 Council shall take further order." 



In November, 1675, it was enacted as follows : " The Court, 

 considering the present state of affairs amongst us in respecting 

 the Indian warr, and what hindrance the same may bee to the 

 raysing supplyes of prouissions amongst ourselwes, Judge 

 meete that the law prohibiting importation of wheate, biskeet 

 and flower, be suspended as to the particulars above mentioned 

 until this Court take further order." Notwithstanding the 

 interruption to husbandry this year (1675,) by King Philip's 

 war, the records speak of large crops of wheat in the State, 

 especially on the " Quenecticott ; " and it was when on their 

 return from threshing the crop in the town of Deerfield, that 

 " eighty young men, the flower of the county of Essex," were 

 slaughtered by the savages at Bloody Brook. 



No mention is made in the Court Acts or Records of those 

 early times, of any failure of the wheat crop, from disease, or 

 unsuitableness of soil and climate for its cultivation. It grew 

 luxuriantly on the newly cleared lands ; and was often sown 

 for several successive years on the same field, after taking off 

 the forest ; and continued to be the chief crop, until by constant 

 cropping without manuring, the lands failed to bear this grain. 



Jared Elliott, in his " Essays on Field Husbandry in New 

 England," published about 1760, speaks of the complaints 

 made by farmers of the failure of their wheat crops, and 

 imputes it to thriftless husbandry. He very frankly tells them 

 that if they would spend less time in complaining, running 

 about, and moving to find new and unexhausted lands, and 

 more in manuring, and thoroughly cultivating the farms they 

 now have, they would have no cause to complain of their crops. 

 He says : " "We find land will yield wheat best, when it is 

 ploughed three times. An old and experienced farmer recom- 

 mended deep ploughing, even on thin, shallow lands. There- 

 upon I ordered a piece of land to be ploughed so deep that our 



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