HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 59 



tion and the Constitution of the United States were 

 patterned somewhat after the Indian councils. The 

 Indian Confederacy was claimed to have existed for 

 six generations. The total Iroquois Indian popula- 

 tion is said never to have numbered more than 

 fourteen thousand after the advent of the white man. 

 In addition, there were the Erie and other tribes in 

 the western counties. 



The Iroquois had numerous villages protected by 

 stockades of poles driven into the ground and equipped 

 with defensive platforms. Adjacent to the villages 

 were cleared and cultivated fields sometimes reach- 

 ing one or two hundred acres in extent, usually on 

 low land along rivers or lakes. Notable among these 

 were fields at Indian Castle, east of Little Falls on 

 the flats of the Mohawk, Onondaga Castle, south of 

 Syracuse, Seneca Castle near Geneva, at Honeoye 

 Falls, and a very large field in the Genesee Valley 

 between Geneseo (Big Tree) and the present site of 

 Mt. Morris. Other important settlements were near 

 Elmira, Binghamton and at Peach Orchard Point, 

 now Aurora. 



Maize and beans, pumpkins and squash seem to 

 have been the main crops. General Sullivan's raid 

 in 1779, by which the strength of the Indians in cen- 

 tral New York was broken, is reported to have de- 

 stroyed great stores of corn and other crops at the 

 different settlements aggregating more than 300,000 

 bushels. The maize included flint, sweet and pop 

 varieties. In addition, peas, turnips and other vege- 

 tables and tobacco were grown. Winter stores were 



