HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 57 



In considering the development of the settlement, 

 it is important to keep clearly in mind the physical 

 nature of the country and the more accessible lines 

 of travel, which were the waterways and the low 

 passes between the hills. The new settlement was 

 peculiarly situated in tliat respect, a fact that was 

 more vital to its later development than to its early 

 expansion. The wonderful harbor, the navigable 

 tide-water as far as Albany together with the low 

 pass into the interior of Xew York State, and also 

 the great middle section of the United States, 

 through the ^lohawk Valley and the Great Lakes re- 

 gion, have cooperated to make this route the main 

 gateway to the middle country and to maintain an 

 organic connection between the peoples and customs 

 in this eastern region and those in the more westerly 

 districts. 



AGRICULTURE OF THE INDIANS 



The territory of central New York from the east- 

 ern part of the ]\Iohawk Valley to west of the Genesee 

 River was the home and the stronghold of the Five 

 and later the Six Nations of Indians to whom the 

 French gave the name Iroquois. They called them- 

 selves Hodenosounce and in some cases Onguie- 

 Honwe, the latter meaning " the men or people of 

 the Long House." This term was descriptive of the 

 type of their dwelling-houses which were long frame 

 structures of poles and bark, built in compartments, 

 and in which lived several families of the same clan. 

 (See Plate II.) 



