Whereas it is found that greater pains have generally been taken to promote the fur trade than the agriculture and poi^ulation of the country, the supreme court there, shall, in consequence, above all things, provide that cattle be not exported, but be as much as possible retained and reared there : also that a good quantity of grain be kept in store to be furnished and sold at a reasonable price to newly arrived immegrants, who are to be assisted and favoured in every manner, and be located on good lands, suitable for cultivation, taking care therein that they shall dwell as close and as compact together as possible on such lands and places as shall be considered best and most suitable for homestead, bouwerie, plantation and security: the Patroons of Colonies remaining at liberty to improve their own lands as they think proper, they being also obliged to settle the colonists in the form of villages.

The lower Philipse patent, in 1779, embraced a large part of Westchester Coimty, though Philipse was not a Patroon. North of his extensive territory, more particular!}^ defined in another chapter, lay the manor of Cortlandt, reaching as far as Anthony's Nose. On the north of Van Cortlandt Philipse again appears; the Highland Patent, as it was called, taking in nearly all of Putnam Coimty and reaching to Fishkill creek. Rondout came next, including the land between Fishkill and Wappinger's creek. The Schuylers ruled where Poughkeepsie now is, and Falconer's purchase lay to the north. Above Falconer's was the Henry Beekman tract, that had Esopus as its northern boundary, and above that the Schuyler name again appears.