\90 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. Part I. 



1179. TAe method of forming floating fields, which they still practise, is extremely simple. They 

 plait and twist together willows and roots of marsh plants, or other materials which are light but 

 capable of supporting the earth of the field firmly united. Upon this foundation they lay the light 

 bushes which float on the lake, and, over all, the mud and dirt which they draw up from the bottom 

 ot the same lake. Their regular figure is quadrangular ; their length and breadth various : but in 

 general, they are about eight perches long, and not more than three in breadth, and have less than a 

 loot of elevation above the surface of the water. There were the first fields which the Mexicans owned 

 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 flowers, 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 surprisingly ; the mud of 

 the lake is an extremely fertile soil, and requires no 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 neighbour, 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 inlorms 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, cauliflower, and a great variety of other culinary plants, 

 are cultivated on them. 



1180. 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, vol. i. p. 371.) 



1181. 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 

 labour, and other more simple instruments. To hoe and dig the ground they made use of the coatl, 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 axe, whereas they put the axe 

 into an eye in 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. 



1182. They irrigated their fields 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 makes an excellent 

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

 if necessary. 



1183. In the sowing of maize, 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 hole he drops one or two of the 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 cer- 

 tain distance, which is greater or less according to the quality of the soil, opens another hole, and con- 

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

 the first. The rows of plants by these means are as straight as if a line were 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 

 exactly 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 thus cultivated 

 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. 



1184. In the labours of the field 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 formed the employment 

 of both. 



1185. They had places like farm-yards, where they stripped off the leaves and shelled the ears, 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 and slender 

 branches, and a thin smooth bark ; the wood is extremely pliant, difficult to break and slow to rot. 

 These granaries were formed by placing the round and equal trunks of the ojameth in a square, one upon 

 the other, without any labour except that of making a small notch towards their extremities, to adjust 

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

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

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

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

 six thousand, or sometimes more, fanegas 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 intelli- 

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



1186. 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. These little towers are still made use of, even in the fields of the 

 Spaniards, on account of the excessive number of birds. 



1187. The woods which supplied them with fuel to burn, 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. 



