rse long grass grew along the low banks of the river
and wherever the ground was not thickly shaded by trees. After the
occupation of the country by the white settlers this annual burning was
prohibited. In lieu thereof, the General Court early in its history
enacted that every inhabitant, with a few exceptions, should devote a
certain time yearly, in the several plantations, to the cutting of brush
and small trees in the more open forests for the purpose of allowing
grass to grow in such places, as during the summer the cattle ranged
through the forests near the plantations subsisting on what grew there.
It is said that in the early settlement of this town, all meadow land
was secured by clearing marshy or swampy ground and allowing it to grow
up with grass from the roots and seeds already in the soil. It was one
of the early difficulties in the Colony to secure grass, from want of
grass seed.

The forests about here abounded with bears, wolves, foxes and
catamounts, deer and moose, wild turkeys, pigeons, quail and partridges,
and the waters with wild geese, ducks, herons and cranes. The river
itself was alive with fish and every spring great quantities of shad and
lamprey eels ascended it. Strawberries, blackberries and huckleberries
were extremely abundant in their season.

The winters were usually of great severity. In 1637 the snow lay on the
ground three feet deep all over New England from the third of November
until the 23rd of March and on the 23rd of April it snowed for several
hours in Boston, the flakes being as large as shillings. The springs
were very backward, the summers extremely hot and often dry.

Upon the petition of the people in Milford, in May, 1702, the General
Assembly granted them liberty to purchase from the Indians a township at
Wyantonock, the Indian name of this place, and directed them to report
their doings to the Assembly. The next March they made an extensive
purchase of the natives, and a patent for the same was granted by the
Assembly. In October, 1704, the Legislature enacted that the tract so
purchased should be a township by the name of New Milford, and that it
must be settled in five years,--the town plat to be fixed by a committee
appointed by the General Assembly. In October, 1706, the Legislature
annexed the tract to New Haven County. In April, 1706, the first meeting
of the proprietors was held at Milford, and it was voted that the town
plat and home lots should be speedily p