86 OLD-FASHIONED GARDENING 



raise as much corne as they could, and obtain a beter 

 crope than they had done, that they might not still 

 thus languish in miserie. At length, after much de- 

 bate of things, the Governour (with ye advise of ye 

 chiefest among them) gave way that they should set 

 come, every man for his perticuler, and in that re- 

 gard trust to themselves ... so assigned to 

 every family a parcell of land, according to the pro- 

 portion of their number for that end, only for pres- 

 ent use. . . . This . . . made all hands 

 very industrious, so as much more come was planted 

 than other waise would have been by any means ye 

 Governour or any other could use, and saved him a 

 great deall of trouble and gave farr better contente." 

 Somewhat tartly he concludes the account with the 

 mention of feminine help, saying, as earlier quoted, 

 that they went willingly into the field, "which before 

 would aledge weakness and inabilitie: whom to have 

 compelled would have been thought great tiranie and 

 oppression." 



It is perhaps beside the question — ^but it is inter- 

 esting — to note that Bradford comments on Plato's 

 projected communal life being proved impracticable 

 by this experience. Great though the need and the 

 stress of these God-fearing men and women was, in 

 this wild land beset with the perils of wild men and 

 untamed Nature, they yet quibbled when it came to 



