AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIEf? 187 



quently occurring in some of the northern counties 

 is likewise unfavorable to corn culture. The firm 

 quality of the soil and moderate height of the stalk 

 does not require the deep planting characteristic of 

 the prairie states, and IMichigan corn is sown in hills 

 by a corn-planter, the hills being placed equidistant 

 to permit cultivation in either direction without 

 alternating the reach of the cultivator, if grain 

 rather than forage is sought. Corn was grown by 

 the aboriginal inhabitants of Michigan, who, as one 

 pioneer describes it, planted the seed not in rows but 

 haphazardly, the grain being softer and whiter than 

 that brought by the whites. To preserve corn, the 

 Indians are stated to have smoked it and then buried 

 it in the earth. To prepare it as food, the squaws 

 pounded the kernels in a mortar made by burning a 

 bowl in the end of a log or in hollowed blocks of 

 stone. It was eaten in the form of soup or cooked 

 with venison or other meat.^ This is the true Indian 

 corn, bv which desisrnation it is commonlv referred 

 to by the early settlers rather than "maize," by 

 which it is known to Europeans. The immigrant 

 whites also relied on corn for food for man and 

 beast, and sometimes made extremely long journeys 

 to obtain a few bushels of seed for sowing among 

 the stumps or girdled trees or after the first breaking 

 of the virgin soil. A chain dragged back and forth 

 across the field was a primitive corn-marker before 

 the advent of the three or four legged home-made 



*"Mich. Pioneer & Hist. Soc. Collections," XXXVIII^ 

 662. 



