AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. 447 



mentioned by early writers, could have been made productive 

 so soon. Mr. Walcott, a distinguished Connecticut magistrate, 

 wrote in 1635 (certainly not more than five years after his 

 colony was first planted), " I made five hundred hogsheads of 

 cider out of my own orchard in one year." This would have 

 been almost impossible, had he been obliged to raise his orchard 

 from the seed, or had he planted trees of such a size as could 

 have been transported through the trackless wilderness. The 

 apple may not be indigenous to this country, and yet the Ind- 

 ians may have possessed it, as they did corn, which is not a 

 native of their soil. Certain it is that they had orchards of 

 cherries and of plums, large stores of which were dried for 

 winter use. Tobacco was everywhere cultivated ; huge grape- 

 vines entwined many a forest tree, and there was an abundance 

 of berries in the woods. Gourds were raised in great numbers, 

 and of all sizes, from the large " cal-a-bash-es " that would hold 

 two or three gallons each, to the tiny receptacles of pigments 

 used in painting for war. 



From the sap of the maple they made a coarse-grained sugar, 

 which, when mixed with freshly-pounded " sap-paun," and sea- 

 soned with dried whortleberries, was baked into a dainty dish 

 for high festivals. The dried meats of oil-nuts, pounded and 

 boiled in a decoction of sassafras, was their only beverage at 

 such feasts ; and from the green wax of the bayberry they made 

 candles, with rush wicks, which gave clear lights, and yielded a 

 pleasant fragrance while burning. 



Their wigwams were constructed of saplings, set into the 

 ground in a circle, and then drawn together at the top until they 

 formed a conical frame some nine or ten feet high at the apex. 

 This was covered with thick mats of woven grass, or with large 

 sheets of birch-bark, sewed together with the dried sinews of 

 the deer, and then calked with some resinous gum. A mat 

 served as a door ; in the centre was a stone hearth, with an 

 opening above it for the escape of the smoke. The only article 

 of furniture was a large couch, elevated about a foot from the 

 ground, and spread with dressed skins and mats. Birch-bark 

 boxes were used to hold finery and provisions, while the frame- 

 work of the wigwam was hung with war-clubs, bows, bundles of 

 arrows, fish-spears, hoes, axes, and other rude implements which 



