LAND TENURE AND THE ORGANfZATlON OF AGRICULTURE 7I 



According to the latest figures there are 312,654 Indians in the United 

 States under Federal supervision, who inhabit 174 reservations compris- 

 ing 70,891,091 acres of land. Under the general allotment Act, as amended, 

 211,172 allotments of land in severalty have been made to individual 

 Indians, aggregating 34,477,970 acres, and trust patents issued there- 

 for as above set forth. Of this number, 72,508 Indians now hold trust 

 patents and 112,357 l^^^d ^^^ patents. Since 1902, sales have been effected 

 of 11,752 individual tracts of allotted Indian land, comprising 1,405,463 

 acres, for a total of $22,015,907. 



§ 2. The ORGANIZATION OF AGRICULTURE. 



Almost without exception the early explorers found the Indians in 

 what is now the United States, from the border of the Western plains to 

 the Atlantic Ocean, dwelling in settled villages and cultivating the soih 

 De Soto found all the tribes visited by him from the Florida peninsula 

 to the Western part of Arkansas cultivating maize and other food plants. 

 The esLtly voyagers found the same thing true along the Atlantic Coast 

 from Florida to Massachusetts. Captain John Smith and his James- 

 town colony, indeed aU the early colonies, depended at first very largety 

 for food supplies upon the products of Indian cultivation. Jacques Car- 

 tier, the first European to ascend the St. Lawrence River, found the In- 

 dians cultivating the soil. " They have ", he says, good and large fields 

 of corn. " Champlain and other early French explorers testify to the 

 great reliance of the Iroquois on the cultivation of the soil for food. La 

 vSalle observed the Indians cultivating and to a large extent subsisting 

 on maize. Besides maize, beans, squashes, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, 

 and tobacco were cultivated to a considerable extent, especially in what 

 are now the Southern States. Marquette, speaking of the Illinois Indians, 

 says that, in addition to maize, " they also sow beans and melons, which 

 are excellent, especialty those with the red seed ". 



In regard to the tribes further West an early writer states, " From 

 the earliest information we have of the Pueblo Indians they are known to 

 have been tillers of the soil, and though the implements used and their 

 methods of cultivation were both simple and primitive, cotton, corn, wheat 

 (after its introduction), beans and many varieties of fruit were grown in 

 abundance. 



The Indians of Arizona and New Mexico had learnt the art of irri- 

 gating their fields before the appearance of the white man on the conti- 

 nent. This is shown not only by the statements of the early explorers 

 but also by the stiU existing remains of their ditches, estimated to have 

 been sufficient for the irrigation of at least 250,000 acres. 



There is definite evidence that the Indians used fertilizers although 

 it has been stated that they did not. The Plymouth colonists were told by 

 Indians to add fish to the old grounds. It is also stated that the Iroquois 

 manured their land. Lescarbot says that the Virginia Indians and others 



