USA > New York > New York City > Dutch New York (early history of the Dutch in New York) > Part 4
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The Dutch loved the open air. As soon as business was over people sat outside on the stoop, in the street, in the gardens, or in the courtyard. Rich families spent the entire summer in their country-places on the rivers and seashore. The meanest dwelling had a little back garden, if only a few yards square, with a couple of flower-beds and a bench. At the beginning of the Sev- enteenth Century the gardens were not yet adorned with statuary, nor were they inclosed with hedges; but they had summer-houses and arbors, furnished with benches and tables where a light meal could be served. The majority of the town gardens consisted of four regular square beds planted with flowers, fruit trees, and kitchen stuff, and contained a wooden summer-house with a thatched roof. The garden was enjoyed espe-
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cially in the afternoon. Gardens, however, were costly things to keep. The Dutch flowers had a world-wide reputation, and were, for the most part, all grown around Haarlem and sent from there through Europe and to New Netherland. The tulips between 1634 and 1637 made many a man poor and rich - tulips that were considered more costly than gold, pearls, and dia- monds. In the second half of the Seventeenth Century the courts and gardens underwent a great change, especially after Europe was filled with pupils of Le Nôtre, the famous architect and landscape gardener of Versailles, which cost two hundred million francs. Under their supervision new gardens and courts were laid out, and a new style was introduced. The square fences disappeared and were replaced by evergreen hedges cut in various shapes and fabulous forms and ornaments. The various plots and flower-beds were made alike with symmetrical precision. Long straight paths or lanes separated them, and sometimes they looked like a chess or checker board. In short, every- thing about the country-houses was choice, neat, and costly.
The taste for flowers began to show itself in Holland at the end of the Sixteenth Century. Beautiful flowers were introduced from Persia and Constantinople, the East and West Indies. In his flower garden Hondius had lilies of all kinds, tulips and hyacinths "all pure of smell and clear of colour," many kinds of lark- spur, narcissus, wild saffron, and tea roses. Also the apocinum canadense, wind-flowers, pinks, gilly- flowers, sweet peas, violets, anemones, and feather- grass. D'Outrein adorned his flower-plots at Rozen- daal with palms and flowers arranged so beautifully that they resembled embroidery on a costly robe. Here he had lilies, red, white, and damask roses, gilly-
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flowers, the fragrant lupin, and innumerable flowers like stars in the Milky Way. Westerbaen was proud of his fine roses, crocuses, anemones, and summer sots. At Sorgvliet "a pointed emperor's crown " was in bloom, although Cats was not a flower fiend. Huy- gens was fonder of his pine forest than of his flowers; but Beverninck should be mentioned next to Clusius and Paludanus. At Lockhorst he had one of the finest collections of foreign plants, which had been sent to him from all parts of the world; indeed, few ships entered the Dutch ports without bringing him seeds, roots, bulbs, or twigs. In addition to rare exotics, he had lilies, tuberoses, emperor's crowns, hyacinths, tu- lips, auriculas, fritillaries, and ranunculus. The sweet- smelling auricula was something of a novelty. It is unknown who brought it from Switzerland, its native home; but it was sold largely in Brussels and much improved in color and fragrance in Holland. The amaryllis was another favorite flower of the period; but nothing compared with the tulip in popularity.
The tulip mania began in France in 1635, and soon spread to the Low Countries.
It was only natural that the Dutch colonists should bring to the New World a love for and knowledge of flowers. Seeds and bulbs and scions for grafting came over in many a ship, and soon the gardens of New Amsterdam were bright and fragrant with blossoms. Adrian Van der Donck tells us :
The flowers in general which the Netherlanders have introduced there are the white and red roses of different kinds, the cornelian roses and stock roses; and those of which there were none before in the country, such as eglantine, several kinds of gillyflowers, jenoffelins, differ- ent varieties of fine tulips, crown imperials, white lilies, the lily frutularia, anemones, baredames, violets, mari-
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golds, summer sots, etc. The clove tree has also been introduced; and there are various indigenous trees that bear handsome flowers, which are unknown in the Nether- lands. We also find there some flowers of native growth, as for instance sun flowers, red and yellow lilies, mountain lilies, morning stars, red, white and yellow maritoffles (a very sweet flower), several species of bell-flowers, etc .; to which I have not given particular attention, but ama- teurs would hold them in high estimation and make them widely known.
The Company had a garden outside, but not far from the Fort, on Broadway, which was cultivated by the Company's negroes for the benefit of the Director and the other servants of the Company. Its situation is explained in Jan Damen's lease (see page 15). From time to time the Bowery, of which this formed a part, was leased to various tenants. Many of the settlers who took up the Company's land used it solely for their own profit and pleasure, notwithstanding reiterated orders to the contrary. An ordinance of 1658 calls attention to this abuse, reciting that
many spacious and large Lots, even in the best and most convenient part of this City, lie and remain without Build- ings, and are kept by the owners either for greater profit, or for pleasure, and others are thereby prevented to build for the promotion of population and increase of Trade and consumption, as well as for the embellishment of this city, whereunto many newcomers would be encouraged in case they could procure a Lot at a reasonable price on a suitable location, which neglect, if not contempt, thereof, is owing principally to the fact that no penalty fine or amende is imposed by the forementioned Edicts.
A surveyor was therefore appointed, who found " some hundreds of lots inside the walls of the city vacant and not built on." Lots were therefore ap-
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praised and taxed, the proceeds applied to the forti- fication of the city and repairs thereof, and
The Director General and Council ordain and command that, from this time forward, no dwelling-houses shall be built near or under the Walls or Gates of this City before or until the Lots herein mentioned are properly built on.
Gardens were so important in New Netherland that they were cultivated not merely by the owners, but sometimes by men whose exclusive occupation was that of gardening. We hear of a gardener as early as 1639, when P. de Truy, P. van der Linde, and Jan Hendricksen declare that Edward Wilson had kicked the wife of Truy's gardener. In 1665 William the Gardener (de Tenier) lived in the Prince Graft.
In Holland the fruit and vegetable sellers displayed their wares in baskets in their shops, and also carried these around from door to door, even on a Sunday. Fruit was also exhibited by the venders in trays or porcelain dishes under the broad verandas of the shops, while on the sidewalk baskets of apples and pears were also temptingly set out. The favorite apples of the day were the red and white " calvillen," the gray and white " renetten," and golden pippins. The best-liked pears were the " little muscat," " poire Madame," the large and small banquets, the robin, russet, rousselettes, beurrés, bergamot, long-green, muscat fleury, am- brette, Saint Germain, Saint Augustin, and Martin- sec. Smaller baskets and trays were filled with red, black, and yellow plums; sweet and sour cherries; black and red morellos; green, white, and black ber- ries ; raspberries " full of juice and flavour "; medlars, figs, peaches, and apricots. The melon was rare, al- though Hondius had some in his garden. Still rarer
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was the pineapple, said to have been first brought from America in 1514, and presented to King Ferdinand, who ate it and considered it the finest fruit on earth.
The attractive specimens of pears, peaches, grapes, melons, plums, nectarines, cherries, strawberries, rasp- berries, etc., as shown in the pictures by De Heem, Mignon, W. van Aelst, Rachel Ruysch, and other artists of the Seventeenth Century, prove what the Dutch horticulturists were able to produce. Therefore, when the early travelers speak with enthusiasm of the fruits of the New World, we know that they have a high standard for criticism. Van der Donck says :
The indigenous fruits consist principally of acorns, some of which are very sweet ; nuts of different kinds, - chest- nuts, beechnuts, mulberries, plums, but not many medlars, wild cherries, black currants, gooseberries, hazel nuts in great quantities, small apples, very large strawberries throughout the country, with many other fruits and roots which the Indians use. There is also plenty of bill-berries or blue-berries, together with ground-nuts and artichokes, which grow under ground. Almost the whole land is full of vines, as well in the wild woods as the mowing lands and flats ; but they grow principally near to and upon the banks of the brooks, streams and rivers. . . . The grapes comprise many varieties, some white, some blue, some very fleshy and only fit to make raisins of, others, on the contrary, juicy ; some are very large and others small. ... In regard to other fruits all those which grow in Nether- land, also grow very well in New Netherland, without re- quiring as much care as is necessary there. Garden fruits succeed very well, and are drier, sweeter, and more pleas- ant than in Netherland; for proof of which we may in- stance particularly muskmelons, citrons or watermelons, which in New Netherland grow readily in the open fields if the briars and weeds are kept from them.
The garden products in the New Netherlands are very
GARDENS OF THE VAN CORTLANDT MANOR HOUSE, CROTON-ON-HUDSON
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numerous; some of them have been known to the natives from the earliest times, and others introduced from dif- ferent parts of the world, but chiefly from the Nether- lands. ... They consist of various kinds of salads, cab- bages, parsnips, carrots, beets, endive, succory, finckel, sorrel, dill, spinage, radishes, Spanish radishes, parsley, chevril (or sweet cicely), cresses, onions, leeks, and be- sides whatever is commonly found in a kitchen garden. The herb garden is also tolerably well supplied with rose- mary, lavender, hyssop, thyme, sage, marjoram, balm, holy onions (ajuin heylig), wormwood, belury, chives and clary ; also pimpernel, dragon's blood, five finger, tarragon (or dragon's wort), etc., together with laurel, artichokes and asparagus, and various other things on which I have bestowed no attention.
The pumpkin grows with little or no cultivation, and is so sweet and dry that it is used, with the addition of vinegar and water, for stewing in the same manner as apples; and notwithstanding that it is here generally despised as a mean and unsubstantial article of food, it is there of so good a quality that our countrymen hold it in high estimation. I have heard it said, too, that when properly prepared as apples are with us, it is not inferior to them, and when baked in ovens it is considered better than apples. The English, who in general think much of what gratifies the palate, use it also in pastry, and under- stand making a beverage from it.
The natives have another species of this vegetable pe- culiar to themselves, called by our people quaasiens.1 It is a delightful fruit, as well to the eye on account of its fine variety of colours, as to the mouth for its agreeable taste. The ease with which it is cooked renders it a favourite too with the young women. It is gathered early in summer, and when it is planted in the middle
1 Roger Williams, founder of the colony of Rhode Island, describes the plant as " Askutasquash, their vine apples, which the English from them call squashes; about the bigness of apples, of several colours, a sweet, light, wholesome refreshing." Key into the Languages of the Indians (London, 1643).
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of April, the fruit is fit for eating by the first of June. They do not wait for it to ripen before making use of the fruit, but only until it has attained a certain size.
Cucumbers are abundant. Calabashes or gourds also grow there; they are half as long as the pumpkin, but have within very little pulp, and are sought chiefly on account of the shell, which is hard and durable, and is used to hold seeds, spices, etc. It is the common water- pail of the natives, and I have seen one so large that it would contain more than a bushel.1 Turnips also are as good and firm as any sand-rapes that are raised in the Netherlands. There are likewise peas and various sorts of beans.
The Dutch also had the Indian maize, or corn, and soon learned to appreciate the famous succotash made of corn and broad beans.
The Dutch, unaccustomed to the management of vine- yards, did not succeed very well with the cultivation of the grape and making of wine. However, they intro- duced foreign stock and sent to Heidelberg for vine- dressers ; and in some instances they were rewarded with success. The Swedes on the South river had succeeded in making several kinds of excellent wine and had white, red and blue grapes.
The citrull or water citron (citerullen ofte water limo- enen) also grows there, a fruit that we have not in the Netherlands, and is only known from its being occasion- ally brought from Portugal, except to those who have travelled in warm climates. . .. They grow ordinarily to the size of a man's head. I have seen them as large as the biggest Leyden cabbages, but in general they are some- what oblong. Within they are white or red; the red have white and the white black seeds. ... Women and chil- dren are very fond of this fruit. It is also quite refresh- ing from its coolness and is used as a beverage in many
1 A Dutch bushel (schepel) is about three pecks.
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places. I have heard the English say that they obtain a liquor from it resembling Spanish wine, but not so strong.
Melons, likewise, grow in the New Netherlands very luxuriantly, without requiring the land to be prepared or manured; there is no necessity for lopping the vines, or carefully dressing them under glass as is done in this country ; indeed scarcely any attention is paid to them, no more than is bestowed here in the raising of cucum- bers. ... Melons will thrive, too, in newly cleared wood- land, when it is freed from weeds ; and in this situation the fruit which they call Spanish pork grows large and very abundant. I had the curiosity to weigh one of these melons, and found its weight to be seventeen pounds.
The mulberries are better and sweeter than ours, and ripen earlier. Several kinds of plums, wild or small cherries, juniper, small kinds of apples, many hazel-nuts, black currants, gooseberries, blue India figs and straw- berries in abundance all over the country, some of which ripen at half May and we have them until July; blue- berries, raspberries, black-caps, etc., with artichokes, ground-acorns, ground beans, wild onions and leeks like ours, with several other kinds of roots and fruits known to the Indians, who use the same which are disregarded by the Netherlanders, because they have introduced every kind of garden vegetables which thrive and yield well. The country also produces an abundance of fruits like the Spanish capers, which could be preserved in like manner.
On observing that the climate was suitable to the production of fruit trees, the Dutch imported both seeds and apple and pear trees. The English intro- duced quinces. Orchard cherries also throve well and produced large fruit.
Spanish cherries, forerunners, morellæs, of every kind we have, as in the Netherlands and the trees bear better because the blossoms are not injured by the frosts. The peaches, which are sought after in the Netherlands, grow
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wonderfully well here. If a stone is put into the earth, it will spring in the same season, and grow so rapidly as to bear fruit in the fourth year, and the limbs are fre- quently broken by the weight of the peaches, which usu- ally are very fine. We have also introduced morecotoons (a kind of peach), apricots, several sorts of the best plums, almonds, persimmons, cornelian cherries, figs, sev- eral sorts of currants, calissiens and thorn apples; and we do not doubt but that the olive would thrive and be profitable, but we have them not. Although the land is full of many kinds of grapes, we still want settings of the best kinds from Germany, for the purpose of enabling our vine-planters here to select the best kinds and to propagate the same.
Orchards, as we have seen, had become not only numerous but valuable possessions of the Dutch col- onists, who cultivated the native and foreign stock. When the Labadist Fathers visited the country in 1679- 1680, they were perfectly amazed at the fine specimens of pears, apples, and peaches offered to them, and the abundance. This fruit they describe as " exceedingly fair and good and pleasant to the taste; much better than that in Holland or elsewhere." They saw many gardens on the island of Manhattan and on Long Island so laden with apples, peaches, and other fruit that " one might doubt whether there were more leaves or fruit on them." They confessed they had never seen in Eu- rope, even in the best of seasons, anything to equal it; for though " quantities had fallen off, the trees were still as full as they could bear." Again they were aston- ished to find peach trees " all laden with fruit to break- ing down, and many of them actually broken down "; while hogs and other animals were enjoying their fill. On both sides of the Hudson near Spuyten Duyvel they also found delicious peaches, and in such quanti-
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ties that the road was lined with them, and they were told that the hogs were so satiated with them that they would not eat any more. Here they also found blue grapes "as sweet and good as any in Fatherland." They also remarked a fine orchard belonging to the tavern near the church in the Fort on Manhattan Island. " Among other trees," they say, " we observed a mulberry tree, the leaves of which were as large as a plate. The wife showed us pears larger than the fist, picked from a three years graft, which had borne forty of them."
A typical orchard was that found by Tienhoven, Secretary, who in 1639 " went and behind the house which Anthony Jansen from Salee sold to Barent Dircksen, found 12 apple trees, 40 peach trees and 73 cherry trees, 26 sage plants and 15 vines."
Montanus, 1671, says that some plants imported from Holland thrive better than at home, especially the apple, pear, quince, cherry, plum, currant, apricot, buckthorn, medlar, peach, and onion.
Vines grow wild everywhere and bear in abundance blue and white muscatels and pork-grapes (spek-druiven). Some time since, the wine press was successfully intro- duced. The wine was equal to any Rhenish or French wine. Every vegetable known to the Dutch is cultivated in the gardens. Water melons as savory as they are whole- some, are, when ripe, as large as cabbage. The English extract a liquor from them which would be no wise in- ferior to Spanish wine did it not turn sour too soon. Gourds when cleaned out serve as water vessels. Tobacco produces leaves five quarters long. Pumpkins grow luxuriant and agreeable. Corn, sowed in hills six feet apart, sprouts up readily and prosperously if properly weeded. Turkish beans, planted beside the corn, wind themselves around the stalk. Grey peas prosper here so
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well that two crops are gathered in the year from one field. Medicinal plants and indigo grow wild in abun- dance. The barley can be tied above the head. Further- more, all sorts of flowers have a pleasant odour and appearance.
The products of orchards and gardens were fully appreciated by others as well as their rightful owners. Robbing orchards was a pleasant, popular, and pre- sumably profitable pursuit, until the authorities stepped in and discouraged the pastime with heavy penalties. We read under date Nov. 25, 1638:
Whereas complaints are made that the gardens of many persons have been robbed and their poultry taken away, if there be any one who can give information of the thieves, he shall be paid 25 guilders as a reward [if an accomplice, pardoned and name concealed].
Again, July 1, 1647 :
Everyone is warned against doing any damage to Farms, Orchards and Gardens, either to the fences or fruits. [Penalty, “ 100 guilders besides an arbitrary correction."]
Four-footed intruders were even more destructive than human marauders, as we gather from the ordi- nance of 1648 forbidding goats or hogs to be pastured between the fortifications and the Fresh Water.
Mr. Woolley, in his Two Years Journal in New York (1678-1680), gives us a description of a bear hunt in an orchard :
I was with others that have had very good diversion and sport with them [Bears] in an orchard of Mr. John Robinson's of New York, where we followed a Bear from
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Tree to Tree, upon which he could swarm like a Cat ; and when he was got to his resting-place, perch'd upon a high branch, we dispatc'd a youth after him with a Club to an opposite bough, who knocking his Paws he comes grumbling down backwards with a thump upon the ground, so we after him again. His descending back- wards is a thing particularly remarkable.
The first care of the West India Company was natu- rally for the safety of its servants and storehouse, and therefore a fort was built of sufficient size to inclose barracks, a church, a windmill, a may-pole, the Com- pany's buildings, and a gibbet. Into this the settlers could retire in case of Indian attack. Beyond it a small town was laid out, and further protected by a strong palisade with gates that were shut at night.
Michaëlius wrote in 1628:
They fell much wood here to carry to Fatherland, but the vessels are too few to take much of it. They are making a windmill to saw the wood: and we also have a gristmill. They bake brick here, but it is very poor. There is good material for burning lime, namely oyster shells in large quantities. The burning of potash has not succeeded; the master and his labourers are all greatly disappointed. We are busy now in building a fort of good quarry stone, which is to be found not far from here in abundance. May the Lord only build and watch over our walls.
The houses gradually increased and were planted along the lines of the Fort and shores of the river. The river front in these days came up to Pearl Street, and from Whitehall to Broad, the border of the river was called the Strand.
In 1642, two very important buildings were erected, - the city tavern, constructed of stone or brick, two or
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three stories high, with sloping roof and dormer win- dows (which at a later date became the Stadt Huys, or City Hall, for both Dutch and English) ; and the church in the Fort. There was also a road to the Ferry from the Fort, and a line of pickets where Wall Street is now situated. We learn that on March 31, 1644, " a good solid fence was ordered to be erected from the great Bouwery across to the plantation of Eman- uel." All persons who wished their cattle pastured in security were called to assist in erecting the fence with proper tools, and those who failed were excluded from the privileges of the inclosed meadow (see page 18).
The forests supplied magnificent timber for building purposes, and so the first houses were usually built of wood with thatched roofs. Some houses, however, were built of brick and stone with tiled roofs, and some wooden houses had brick chimneys. The Com- pany at first supplied the bricks and tiles from Amster- dam, but very soon there were brick kilns on Manhattan Island, at Fort Orange, and in the Dutch settlement on the Delaware. Jan A. de Graaf owned a brick kiln in New Amsterdam in 1658; and ten years later 1250 hard bricks cost twenty-four florins in Fort Orange. Not only brick but stone was used in the construction of the more important edifices. The price of brick and the extent to which it entered into the building of the early houses of New Amsterdam may be gathered from the records. When the West India Company leased the Bouwery at Hoboken to H. C. van Vorst in 1639, 4000 bricks were delivered to him to build the chim- ney; all other necessaries were at his own expense. On May 29, 1643, Laurens Cornelissen delivered with his house " stone enough to build an oven capable of bak- ing a schepel and a half of wheat." On Nov. 2, 1643,
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