4 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



to which, indeed, those mechanical improvements have, in their 

 turn, largely contributed.* 



It is true that the Pilorims, on their arrival in this country, 

 had the benefit of the plants at that time cultivated and used 

 as food by the Indians, yet they were wholly unaccustomed to 

 these, and were ignorant of the mode of using them as food, 

 and of the manner of their cultivation. Indian corn, the staple 

 product, and the pride of America, had never been seen by 

 them. Pumpkins, squashes, potatoes and tobacco, were almost 

 equally strange to tliem. f 



"When their necessities tauglit thorn the value of these plants, 

 they were not slow in adopting the Indian methods of culti- 

 vating them. As the general cultivation, in the colonies, 

 continued nmch the same for many years, with only slight modi- 

 fications on the introduction of the plough, it may not be 

 inappropriate to turn our attention, for a moment, to the agri- 

 culture of the natives. 



It is well known, that most of the hard work necessary to 

 supply their limited wants, fell to the lot of the women, assist- 

 ed, sometimes, by old men and little boys. Among their thank- 

 less tasks was that of farming, which they carried on to an 

 extent quite remarkable, wlien we consider the rudeness of the 

 tools with which they worked, and the circumstances in which 

 they were placed. They had no art of manufacturing metal, 

 and of course could have no proper implements of agriculture. 

 Their cultivation was not so rude, however, as one would nat- 

 urally suppose. They made a kind of hoe by tying the shoul- 

 der blade of a moose, bear or deer, to a stick or pole. 



• The coloniBts do not seem to have been provided •with ploughs ; for we find 

 that twelve years after the landing at Plymouth, the farmers about Boston, having 

 no ploughs, were obliged to break up the bushes with their hands and hoes, to 

 prepare their lands for cultivation ; and even so late as 1637, there were but thirty- 

 seven ploughs in the whole State. It was the custom, even to a much later 

 period, for one owning a plough, to do most of the ploughing in a town ; going 

 about from one part of the town to another. The town often paid a bounty to one 

 who would buy and keep a plough in repair, to do work in this way. 



fThe potato was so rare in England at the beginning of the 17th century, as to 

 be served up only in very small quantities. It was sold at two shilUngs a pound, 

 for the queen's table, and was used as a fruit, baked into pies, seasoned with spices 

 and wine, and sometimes eaten with sugar. 



