72 UNITED STATES - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL 



" enrich their fields with shells and fish ". The implements they used in 

 cultivating the ground are described by him as " wooden howes and spades 

 made of hard wood ". " The Florida Indians dig their ground with 

 an implement of wood fashioned like a broad mattox ; they use howes 

 made of the shoulder blades of animals fixed on staves ; and a piece of 

 wood three inches broad, bent at one end and fastened to a long 

 handle, suffices them to free the land from weeds and turn it up lightly " 



Among the Indians the farm and field work was mostly done by the 

 women, the men being regarded as hunters and warriors. Hariot says 

 (1810) : 



" The women, with short pickers or parers (because they use them 

 sitting) of a foot long and about five inches in breadth, do ovly break 

 the upper part of the ground to raise up the weeds, grass and old stubs or 

 corn stalks with their roots. " 



It was a general custom to burn over the ground before planting in order 

 to free it from weeds and rubbish. In the forest region patches were 

 cleared by girdling the trees, thus causing them to die and afterwards 

 burning them down. While the women were thus occupied, the men en- 

 gaged in fishing, hunting, or trapping, when not busA^ on the war path. 



The first treaty between the United States and any Indian tribe was 

 made with the Delawares on September 17, 1778, and was concerned 

 primarily with the establishment and preservation of peace between the 

 the whites and Indians and the recognition by the latter of the authority 

 of the United States. No grants of money or food supplies to Indians 

 were made therein, but this practice gradually developed in subsequent 

 treaties, manj^ of which also included an agreement on the part of the 

 Indians to remain within a certain restricted locaHty, this being the germ 

 of the present reserv^ation system. Apparently the first treaty in which 

 the United States specifically agreed to furnish farmers to instruct the 

 Indians in agricultural pursuits was that with the Menominee Indians on 

 February 8, 1831, as follows : 



" The above reservation being made to the Menominee Indians, 

 for the purpose of weaning them from their wandering habits by attach- 

 ing them to comfortable homes, the President of the United States, as 

 a mark of affection for his children of the Menominee tribe, will cause to 

 be employed five farmers of established character for capacity, industry 

 and moral habits, for ten successive years, whose duty it shall be to in- 

 struct the Menominee Indians in the cultivation of their farms and to in- 

 struct their children in the business and occupation of farming. " 



The first general appropriation for Indian education was made on 

 March, 3, 1819, when an Act was passed appropriating $10,000 as 

 follows : 



" For the purpose of providing against the further decline and final 

 extinction of the Indian tribes adjoining the frontier settlements of the 

 United States, and for introducing among them the habits and arts of civ- 

 ilization, the President of the United States shall be, and he is hereby, au- 

 thorized, in every case where he shall judge improvement in the habits 



