[58] _3 Collections_ (_Mass. Hist. Society_), Vol. VIII, pp. 336-339. By this time the Colonists were all comfortably housed according to the standards of the period and were producing all the foodstuffs needed and more. Wines and spirit were imported in considerable quantity to give variety to the native beer and cider. Much butter and cheese were brought from abroad and also luxuries such as spices, chocolate, raisins of the sun, almonds, figs, oranges, etc. Our English ancestors were gross eaters and drinkers. Mulled and spiced wines were drunk in the absence of tea and coffee, and highly-seasoned dishes were popular. The absence of a variety of root-crops made it necessary to pickle meat and pepper and spice were used to a considerable extent. There was a very comfortable and varied diet among the merchant and governing class but the farmers and common people lived much on salt pork, beans, fish and boiled foods. As for clothing--home industry, of course, provided a certain amount but as yet the loom was not in common use. Between 1665 and 1675 over three hundred estates were settled in Essex County, Massachusetts, with only nine looms listed in the inventories. Eighty-three of these homes, however, possessed spinning wheels--cotton, linen and wool--for every good wife and child could knit stockings, mittens and tippets. Among those who died during this ten years were two tailors, five shoemakers, a cloth worker and eight weavers.[59] [59] _Probate Records Essex Co., Mass._, Salem, 1917. Much clothing was brought from overseas, particularly for the town dwellers. John Hull, the mintmaster, records in his diary in June, 1657, that three ships arrived from London bringing supplies of clothing, "for, as yet," he writes, "our chief supply, in respect of clothes, is from England." He owned a number of vessels and his little ketches were constantly on the go between Boston and the Barbadoes and thence to Bilboa, London or Bristol. He shipped salted fish, logwood, tobacco, furs and plantation products and received iron in bars, salt, wines and fruits from Spain, while from England came dress goods, lead, shot, etc. His serges he wanted "sad coloured," none above 42 shillings, nor under 30 shillings. He also instructed one of his captains to load "dowlass and good nowell convass [which was used for sails], Dutch duffalls, red penystones and flanils, no such scalet cloth as you brought me before." He looked askance at calicoes. Another time he called for duffalls, white, striped or blue, with red and blue stockings, none above 16 shillings and under if possible. He wanted no "kersey" that cost above 46 pence per yard and the black stuff, either of "hair or wosted," must be cheap.