quilting party was always welcomed by the women with the keenest relish. It was their personal affair. They were free for a time from the noisy interruptions of the children and the men were not in the way although sometimes invited to a supper. As the quilted pattern advanced over the surface "the women gossiped of neighborhood affairs, the minister, the storekeeper's latest purchases, of their dairies, and webs and linens and wools, keeping time with busy fingers to the tales they told." CHAPTER X TRADES AND MANUFACTURES In the new settlements on the Massachusetts Bay, one of the prime necessities was men skilled in the various trades, "an ingenious Carpenter, a cunning Joyner, a handie Cooper, such a one as can make strong ware for the use of the countrie, and a good brickmaker, a Tyler, and a Smith, a Leather dresser, a Gardner, and a Taylor; one that hath good skill in the trade of fishing, is of special use, and so is a good Fowler."[43] The Company had sent over men to govern and ministers to care for spiritual affairs and many of those who came were skilled husbandmen. [43] Wood, _New Englands Prospect_, London, 1634. Many of the smaller towns found themselves without men skilled in the mechanic trades and this was particularly the case with blacksmiths, a very essential trade in every community. This led to grants by towns of land and buildings as inducement for smiths to settle and work their trade. Carpenters were found everywhere, and brickmakers naturally gravitated to deposits of clay while the other craftsmen became distributed in accordance with the law of supply and demand, each taking on apprentices as had been customary in their old homes in England. The principal productions available for commerce were fish, lumber, furs and foodstuffs, but the building of shipping and the importance of the carrying trade must not be overlooked. In the way of domestic manufactures the sawmill came first. The earliest were built on or near the Piscataqua River, but wherever water power was available they soon were set up replacing the laborious saw pits. As the woodlands were cut off the sawmills moved farther up the stream or logs were brought to the mill-sites by floating down with the current. The best of the tall trees were marked with the King's broad arrow and reserved for masts for the royal navy and mast ships sailed for England from Portsmouth, N.H., at frequent intervals. The shipbuilding industry required iron and shortly an iron works was set up at Saugus, where bog iron from the neighboring swamps and meadows was smelted. The enterprise was financed in London and largely worked by Scotch prisoners sent over after the defeat at Dunbar, but the quality of the product proved unsatisfactory, save in the way of casting pots and kettles, and before long the enterprise got into financial difficulties and was abandoned.