190 ; HISTORY OF A>GRICULTURE. Part I. 



after the foundation of Mexico* there they first cultivated the maize, great pepper, and other plants, 

 necessary for their support. In progress of time as those fields grew numerous from the industry of those 

 people there were among them gardens of flowers and odoriferous plants, which were employed in the 

 worship of their gods, and served for the recreation of the nobles. At present they cultivate flowern, and 

 every sort of garden herbs upon them. Every day 'of the year, at sun-rise, innumerable vessels loaded 

 with" various kinds of flowers and herbs, which are cultivated in those fields and gardens, are seen arriving 

 by the canal, at the great market-place of that capital. All plants thrive there surjjrisingly ; the mud of 

 the lake is an extremely fertile soil, and requires np water from the clouds. In the largest islands there 

 is commonly a little tree, and even a little hut to shelter the cultivator, and defend him from rain or the 

 sun. When the owner of an island, or the chinampa, as he is usually called, wishes to change his situa- 

 tion to remove from a disagreeable neighbor, or to come nearer to his own family, he gets into his 

 little vessel, and by his own strength alone, if the garden is small, or with the assistance of others, if it is 

 large he tows it after him, and conducts it wherever he pleases with the little tree and hut upon it. 

 That'part of the lake where those floating fields are, is a place of infinite recreation, where the senses 

 receive the highest possible gratification. These floating fields, Humboldt informs us, still exist : they are 

 of two sorts; the one mobile and blown here and there by the winds, and the others fixed and united 

 to the shore. The former alone merit the appellation of floating, and they are diminishing day by day. 

 He assigns to them the same origin as the abbe Clavigero ; but thinks it probable that nature also may have 

 suggested the first idea, and gives instances of small pieces of the surface, netted with roots and covered 

 with plants, being detached from the marshy shores of other American lakes, and 'floating about in the 

 water. The bean, pea, apple, artichoke, cauliflowers, and a great variety of other culinary plants are 

 cultivated on them. 



1155. A floating island, in a small lake in Haverhill, in New England, is mentioned by Dr. Dwight. It 

 has, he was informed, immemorially floated from one shore to another, whenever it was impelled by a 

 violent wind. Lately it has adhered for a considerable time to a single spot ; and may perhaps be so 

 firmly fixed on the shelving bottom, as to move no more hereafter. Several trees and shrubs grow on its 

 surface, and it is covered by a fresh verdure. {Travels, &c. vol. i. p. 371.) 



1156. Having neither ploughs nor oxen, nor any other animals proper to be employed in the culture of the 

 earth, the Mexicans, when they had shaken off the Tepanecan yoke, supplied the want of them by labor, 

 and other more simple instruments. To hoe and dig the ground they made use of the contl, or coa, 

 which is an instrument made of copper, with a wooden handle, but different from a spade or mattock. 

 They made use of an axe to cut trees, which was also made of copper, and was of the same form with 

 those of modern times, except that we put the handle in the eye of the axer, whereas they put the axe 

 into an eye of the handle. They had several other instruments of agriculture ; but the negligence of 

 ancient writers on this subject has not left in our power to attempt their description. 



1157. They irrigated their filds with the water of rivers and small torrents which came from the moun- 

 tains, raising dams to collect them, and forming canals to conduct them. Lands which were high, or on 

 the declivity of mountains, were not sown every year, but allowed to lie fallow until they were over-run 

 with bushes, which they burned, to repair by their ashes the salt which rains had washed away. They 

 surrounded their fields with stone enclosures, or hedges made of the penguin, which make an excellent 

 fence ; and in the month Panquetzaliztli, which began on the third of December, they were repaired if 

 necessary. 



1158. In sowing of maixe, the method they observed, and which they still practise in some places, is 

 this: the sower makes a small hole in the earth with a stick, or drill probably, the point of which is 

 hardened by fire ; into this h)le he drops one or two grains of maize from a basket which hangs from his 

 shoulder and covers them with a little earth by means of his foot ; he then passes forward to a certain 

 distance, which is greater or less according to the quality of the soil, opens another hole, and continues so 

 in a straight line unto the end of the field ; from thence he returns, forming another line parallel to the 

 first. The rows of plants by these means are as straight as if a line was made use of, and at as equal 

 distances from each other as if the spaces between were measured. This method of sowing, which is now 

 used by a few of the Indians only, though more slow, is, however, of some advantage, as they can more ex- 

 actly proportion the quantity of seed to the strength of the soil ; besides that there is almost none of the 

 seed lost which is sown : in consequence of this, the crops of the fields which are cultivated in that 

 manner are usually more plentiful. When the maize springs up to a certain height, they cover the foot 

 of the plant round with earth, that it may be better nourished, and more able to withstand sudden gusts 

 of wind. 



1159. In the labors of the field the men were assisted by the women. It was the business of the men to 

 dig and hoe the ground, to sow, to heap the earth about the plants, and to reap ; to the women it belonged 

 to strip off" the leaves from the ears, and to clear the grain ; to weed and to shell it was the employment 

 of both. 



1160. They had places like farm-yards, where they stripped off the leaves from the ears, and shelled 

 them, and granaries to preserve the grain. Their granaries were built in a square form, and generally 

 Of wood. They made use of the ojameth for this purpose, which is a' very lofty tree, with but a few 

 slender branches, and a thin smooth bark ; the wood of it is extremely pliant, and diflScult to break 

 or rot. These granaries were formed by placing the round and equal trunks of the ojameth in a square, 

 one upon the other, without any labor except that of a small notch towards their extremities, to adjust 

 and unite them so perfectly as not to suffer any passage to the light. When the structure was raised to 

 a sufficient height, they covered it with another set of cross-beams, and over these the roof was laid 

 to defend the grain from rains. Those granaries had no other door or outlet than two windows, one below 

 which was small, and another somewhat wider above. Some of them were so large as to contain five or 

 six thousand, or sometimes more /arjeg-fls of maize. There are some of this sort of granaries to be met 

 with in a few places at a distance from the capital, and amongst them some so very ancient, that they 

 appear to have been built before the conquest ; and, according to information had from persons of 

 intelligence, they preserve the grain better than those which are constructed by the Europeans. 



1161. A little tower of wood, branches and mats they commonly erected close to fields which were sown, 

 in which a man defended from the sun and rain, kept watch, and drove away the birds which came in 

 flocks to consume the young grain. Those little towers are still made use of even in the fields of the 

 Spaniards on account of the excessive number of birds. 



1162. The woods which suppUed them with fuel to bum, timber to build, and game for the diversion of 

 the king, were carefully preserved. The woods of king Montezuma were extensive, and the laws of king 

 Nezahualcojotl concerning the cutting of them particular and severe in their penalties. It would be of 

 advantage to that kingdom, says Clavigero, that those laws were still in force, or at least that there was 

 not so much liberty granted in cutting without an obligation to plant a certain number of trees ; as many 

 people, preferring their private interest and convenience to the public welfare, destroy the wood in order to 

 enlarge their possessions. 



1163. The breeding of animals was not neglected by the Mexicans : though there were 

 no sheep, they bred up innumerable species of animals unknown in Europe. Bullock 

 (^Travels, 1824) informs us, that they are very curious in rearing and feeding swine ; and 

 that an essential requisite in a Mexican swineherd is an agreeable voice ; in order that 

 he may sing or charm the animals into peace when they quarrel and fight, and lull them 



