SECRETARY'S REPORT. S 



The land, when selected, was cleared, by keeping up a fire 

 around the foot of each tree till its bark was so burned that it 

 would die. They then planted their corn. When a tree fell, 

 it was burned into pieces of such a length that they could be 

 rolled into a heap and burned to ashes. In this way, by de- 

 grees, a piece covered with wood, was wholly cleared. An 

 industrious woman could burn oflF as many dry fallen logs in a 

 day, as a strong man could, at that time, cut with an axe in two 

 or three. They used a stone axe, made much in the same way 

 as the hoe above described, to scrape the charred surface of 

 the logs, and hasten the burning. This mode of clearing was 

 common through the western part of the State. In the eastern 

 part, the tree was sometimes girdled with the axe, and thus 

 killed, was allowed to dry, and then burned by kindling a fire 

 around it, as above described. 



They taught the settlers to select the finest ears of corn for 

 seed, to plant it at the proper time, and in a proper manner, 

 to weed it, and to hill it. They were accustomed to dig small 

 holes four feet apart, with a clumsy instrument, resembling the 

 one described, which, in the eastern part of the State, was 

 sometimes made of large clam-shells. Those living in tlie vi- 

 cinity of the sea-shore, put into each hole a horse-shoe crab or 

 two, upon which they dropped four, and sometimes six kernels 

 of corn, and covered it with the implement with which they had 

 dug the hole. In the interior, a few small fishes in each hill, 

 were used as a fertilizer. Beans were planted with the 

 corn after it had come up, and grew up supported by it. 

 Great attention was paid by them to the protection of their 

 growing crops. Not a weed was to be seen in their fields, and 

 the corn was carefully guarded against destruction by insects 

 and birds. To prevent loss by the latter, a small watch-house 

 was erected in the midst of a field of corn, in which one of the 

 family, often the oldest child, slept, and early in the morning 

 rose to watch the blackbirds. It was their universal custom 

 to hill the corn about two feet high, for its support, and spots 

 may often be seen at the present day, which were evidently 

 cultivated by them. The colonists very generally imitated this 

 custom, and it has been continued down to our own times. The 

 men planted and cured their tobacco, which was, ordinarily, 



