20 TKAN8 ACTIONS. 



manner and time of planting, weeding and shelling it. They 

 dug small holes about four feet apart, sometimes using an in- 

 strument, which seems to have answered the purpose of ^ 

 shovel and a hoe, and sometimes with nothing more conven- 

 ient than large clam shells. Into each of these they usually 

 put a horse-shoe crab, and sometimes two, and planted four 

 kernels upon it, covering the hills with the same instru- 

 ment with which they had dug the hole. After the corn was 

 up, beans were planted in each hill and were supported by the 

 corn. 



In the interior, three or four small fishes served the purpose 

 of a fertilizer. The practice of using any such materials was 

 not universal. They were neat and clean in their cultivation, 

 much more so than the settlers. Not a weed was allowed to 

 grow, and they took special care to guard against the destruc- 

 tion of the corn by insects and birds. The custom of hilling 

 corn for its support was so general among the Indians, that to 

 this day, the spots which they cultivated may be found in all 

 parts of the country. This custom was of course imitated by 

 the colonists, and has been continued till within the last few 

 years, as it still is by a few who choose to do so because their 

 fathers did. It is thought by some, however, that the corn is 

 not supported by it, but on the contrary, that it is more liable 

 to be swept over and broken off by storms when hilled, and 

 cannot erect itself so readily as with the flat culture. A very 

 successful experiment was lately made by spreading and plow- 

 ing in a few loads of stable manure, after which the ground 

 was furrowed four feet apart, and a small handful of concen- 

 trated manure put in the bottom of the furrow, on which the 

 corn was dropt, leaving the top of the hill a little below the 

 surface of the ground. The first hoeing raised it slightly, and 

 the second or third made it perfectly level with the surface. 



The picture of the farming of the Indians, which was the 

 model of that of the colonists, would not be complete without 

 a brief allusion to their mode of storing the products of their 

 labor. The women dug large holes in the earth and carefully 

 lined the sides with bark. Into these holes they threw the 



