CHAPTEI? IT 



HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE IN NEW YORK 



The first white men came into New York in 1G09, 

 two years after tlie settlement at Jamestown, Yir- 

 jjinia, and eleven years before the Puritans landed at 

 Plymoutli, Massachusetts. In July of that year 

 Champlain entered the lake region, that now bears liis 

 name, from the north, and Captain Hendrick Hudson 

 discovered the Hudson Piver and spent the month of 

 September on it. He sailed up the river to the head 

 of tide-water at what is now Albany. With his crew 

 he interchanged courtesies with the Indians and 

 later bought of them fruits, maize and otlier prod- 

 ucts of the soil. 



The permanent settlement of New York began in 

 1623. In that year Peter Minuet acquired from the 

 Indians their claim to Manhattan ("Manna hatta") 

 Island for twenty-four dollars. Farms, which were 

 called boweries, were laid out on that island and on 

 adjacent parts of Long Island. To the regiou the 

 Dutch gave the name New Amsterdam. In succeed- 

 ing years, under supervision of the Dutch West Indies 

 Company, settlements of Dutch were planted along 

 the Hudson Eiver as far north as Albany or Fort 

 Orange and among these was a considerable number 

 of Walloons or Belgian French. 



56 



