THE FARM LAND 27 



sounded to the farmers left landless by this law. "It [Virginia] 

 is the goodliest and most pleasing Territorie of the World." 

 "[There is] such luxuriant plantie and admirable raritie of 

 trees, shrubs, hearbs; such fertilitie of soyle . . . opportunitie 

 of habitations, hopes in present, hopes of future," that one had 

 to see it to believe it. 3 



With such advertising, it was not long before settlers were 

 coming to America by the thousands. Not only English, but 

 German, Swiss, Dutch, French, men of all kinds fleeing from 

 poverty, oppression, famine, war, to the rich, plentiful land of 

 America. Had that staunch Puritan, Francis Higginson, lived 

 another hundred years he would have taken back his lament: 

 "Great pity is it to see so much good ground for corn and for 

 grass as any is under the heavens, to be altogether unoccupied." 4 



SECTION I 



For centuries before the colonists came, the Indians had 

 been growing crops after a fashion. They raised Jerusalem 

 artichoke, many varieties of beans, peas, red peppers, corn, 

 grapes, onions, pumpkins, squash, cotton, and tobacco. It has 

 been estimated that they produced at least 1,000,000 bushels 

 of corn a year. 5 In 1794 General Wayne writing from Ohio of 

 the Indian agriculture said he had never "before beheld such 

 immense fields of corn in any part of America, from Canada 

 to Florida." 6 



It was the Indians who gave the colonists their first intro' 

 duction to American agriculture. The friendly Squanto showed 

 the Pilgrims how to grow corn, "ye manner how to set it, and 

 after, how to dress & tend it." 7 Unfortunately, the earlier set" 



3 Ibid., pp. 57, 58. 



4 Ibid., p. 55. 



5 Faulkner, op. cit., p. 61. 



6 Ibid., p. 60. 



7 Ibid., p. 63. 



