92 OLD-FASHIONED GARDENING 
—and it was at his suggestion that this site, abound¬ 
ing in excellent water, was chosen for the large settle¬ 
ment, when it came to be made. Here he already had 
a garden plot and orchard when the immigrants of 
1630 arrived. 
A letter written by the Rev. Francis Higginson in 
1629, soon after his arrival in Salem, gives a gener¬ 
ous list of garden products as common everywhere. 
“Our governor hath store of green pease growing in 
his garden as good as ever I eat in England. This 
country aboundeth naturally with store of roots of 
great variety and good to eat. Our turnips, parsnips 
and carrots are here both bigger and sweeter than is 
ordinarily to be found in England. Here are also 
stores of pompions, cowcumbers and other things of 
that nature which I know not. Also divers excel¬ 
lent pot herbs grow among the grasses as strawberry 
leaves in all places of the country and plenty of straw¬ 
berries in their time, and penny-royal, winter-savoury, 
sorrel, brooklime, liverwort, carvel, and watercress; 
also leeks and onions are ordinary and divers phy¬ 
sical herbs. Here are also abundance of other 
sweet herbs, delightful to the smell, whose names 
we know not, and plenty of single damask roses; 
and two kinds of herbs that bear two kinds of 
flowers very sweet, which they say are as good 
to make cordage or cloth as any flax or hemp we 
