Horse RAISING IN CoLONIAL New ENGLAND 897 
to the great annoyance of Indians and English,’’ ordered that such 
animals should be treated as common strays and sold (47). 
INCREASE IN NUMBER OF HORSES 
In the two or three decades following the first importations there was 
a rapid increase in the number of horses in New England, and they 
became, abundant not only in the region about Massachusetts Bay but 
also in the newer settlements in Connecticut and Rhode Island. As the 
colonists pushed into these latter areas they took horses and cattle with 
them from the earlier settlements, and, finding the new regions in some 
places especially suitable for the raising of livestock, they began to’ 
engage in it on a considerable scale, so that by 1650 or soon afterward 
there had come about an abundance of both horses and eattle through 
the whole New England territory. 
The increase which thus took place is brought out clearly by the course 
of prices during the period. In the years of the great immigration that 
followed the first settlements on Massachusetts Bay, these prices were 
rather high. Winthrop, in 1633, rates mares as being worth £35, and 
cows from £20 to £26 (48). Two years later the Flanders mares, the 
importation of which has already been noted, sold for £34, and heifers 
brought in by the same ship sold for £12 each (49). During the next 
few years the great number of settlers arriving caused prices to rise 
even higher, and, as Bradford records, ‘‘ ye anciente planters which 
had any stock begane to grow in their estats and spread out on farmes 
to raise more ’’ (50). 
By 1640, however, the supply had apparently overtaken the demand 
and prices began to fall (51). By 1645 this decrease had gone so far 
that Winthrop speaks of a horse the price of which he gives as £10 as 
a ‘‘ eostlie horse ’’’ (52). In 1653, however, horses were still rated by 
the Massachusetts Bay court at £16 (53), but thirteen years later, in 
Connecticut, they had fallen to half that amount (54), and in 1668 the 
Massachusetts Bay court reduced the rate from £10 to £5 (55). Finally, 
in 1677, the rate was still further reduced in Massachusetts Bay, and 
horses were ordered to be received at a rate of £3 for each horse or 
-mare above three years old and 40 shillings for two-year-olds (56). In 
