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 (8), 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 elearings 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 inerease 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. 
1 Numbers in parenthesis refer to the list of citations beginning on page 930. The 
sources cited are given in full in the list beginning on page 936. 
