412 TRANSACTIOXS OF THE 



tinues amongst their posterity, wherein the perfection of husbandry 

 consists." These remarks will apply to the present inhabitants 

 of New England, with many additional fovorable items. In 1635, 

 the first colony from Plymouth, Massachusetts, came across the 

 country to Windsor, on Connecticut river. They brought a drove 

 of cattle and other domestic animals with them. Before they got 

 over the Connecticut river, the winter set in; the cattle lived in 

 the woods and on the meadows, without shelter. These fed as 

 well as those which were housed, but many cattle perished during 

 that winter. The Dorchester people, who made up a part of the 

 colony, lost two hundred pounds' worth of stock. The next 

 spring came many settlers to Windsor, Hartford, Wethersfield, 

 Farmington, and the towns along the river, from the Plymouth 

 colony, bringing great numbers of cattle with them. The first 

 inhabitants of Dorchester, Massachusetts, came chiefly from Devon, 

 Dorset and Somersetshires, in the extreme southern and western 

 part of England, bringing with them their cattle. These were 

 the Devous and Alderneysj but the Devons were the prevailing 

 stock. 



In 1636, Messrs. Hooker and Stone started from Cambridge, 

 Massachusetts, with a colony, for Connecticut river; the company 

 consisted of one hundred and sixty persons, men, women and 

 children. The brought with them one hundred and sixty head 

 of neat cattle; the cattle fed upon the buds, leaves and grass 

 found on the way; the people subsisted on the milk of their cows. 

 This colony came to Hartford, they passed over mountains, 

 through swamps, thickets and rivers; they slept on the ground, 

 with nothing to cover them by night but the heavens, and passed 

 through trackless forests, overhung with high and thick branches 

 and green leaves, with grape vines, which canopied the whole, 

 extending from tree to tree, fragrant with flowers. Mrs. Hooker 

 was sick, and was borne through the wilderness upon a sedan 

 chair, made by fastening two poles on the outside of two horses, 

 one horse being placed ahead of the other, with a chair between 

 the two; the horses 'were each guided by two men, and a boy on 

 the back of each animal. They all came safe; but the planters 

 in Connecticut had but few working oxen or instruments adapted 



