Horse RAIsiInc IN CoLtontaL New ENGLAND 921 
tion, they had little difficulty in achieving this result, for in 1670 a 
letter from Major Mason to the Commissioners of the Colony of Con- 
necticut stated that the land was at that time mainly taken up with 
farms, some of which were five, six, and even ten miles square (155). 
John Hull’s plan in 1677 for horse breeding on a large scale to get 
‘“ large and fair horses and mares ’’ for the West Indies trade is noted 
elsewhere and is another evidence of these large-scale operations. Hull’s 
scheme was a rather ambitious one. He planned to build a stone wall 
across Point Judith Neck, which would have inclosed a peninsula 
approximately five miles long and having an average width of about a 
mile. The object of the wall was to keep out mongrels and strays so 
that the planters would thus be able to breed up a stock of horses of 
superior characteristics for shipment to the Indies. Hull goes even 
further and suggests to his partners, ‘‘ We might have a vessel made for 
that service, accommodated on purpose to carry off horses to 
advantage ’’ (156). 
The wealth of the district increased steadily up to the time of the 
Revolution, and full use was made of the opportunities for animal hus- 
bandry of an extensive sort. In 1755 Douglass notes that for New Ene- 
land, “* the most considerable farms are in the Narragansett country,’’ 
and that the largest of these ‘‘ milks 110 cows, cuts about 200 load of 
hay, makes abcut 13,000 weight of cheese besides butter, and selis off 
considerably of calves, fatted bullocks, and horses’’ (157). In 1747 
South Kingston, the center of the Narragansett region, was assessed 
for the public colony rate a sum only a little less than that for Provi- 
dence and about half that for Newport (158); in 1780 it had become 
by far the richest town in Rhode Island, paying double the sum 
assigned to Newport and two-thirds more than Providence (159). Most 
of this wealth was apparently derived from agricultural operations. 
Their cattle and the output of their dairies were an important source 
of revenue to the Narragansett planters. But by far the most noted 
product of the region — at least toward the middle of the eighteenth 
century — was a breed of saddle horses which they developed.'* These 
18The preference for pacers appeared at an early date and obviously is the cause 
of the development of the Narragansetts themselves through selection and breeding. 
Thus Waite Winthrop writes from Boston in 1684 concerning some horses consigned to 
him for sale: ‘‘I am offered £30 but if the two paced well they would bring nearer 
£50, for such is difference from ordinary jades if they do but pace well.’ (Winthrop 
Papers; Massachusetts Historical Society, G@ollections, 5th ser., vol. 8, p. 446.) 
