BULL. SOI 



AGRTCULTUBE 



25 



from Florida to Massaclmsetts. (Japt. 

 John Smith and his Jamestown colony, 

 indeed all tlie early colonies, dependeil 

 at iirst very largely for subsistence on the 

 products of Indian cultivation. Jaccpies 

 Cartier, the first European who ascended 

 the St Lawrence, found the Indians of 

 Hochelaga (Montreal id.) cultivating the 

 soil. "They have," he remarks, "good 

 and large lields of corn." Champlain 

 and other early French explorers testify 

 to the large reliance of the Iro(]Uois on 

 the cultivation of the soil for suljsistence. 

 La Salle and his companions observed 

 the Indians of Illinois, and thence south- 

 ward along the ]Mississii)pi, cultivating 

 and to a large extent sul)sisting on maize. 



Sagard, an eyewitness of what he re- 

 ports, says, in speaking of the agriculture 

 of the Hurons in 1628-2(i, that they dug 

 a round place at every 2 feet or less, where 

 they planted in the month of JNIay in each 

 hole nine or ten grains of corn which 

 they had previously selected, culled, and 

 soaked for several days in water. And 

 every year they thus planted their corn 

 in the same places and spots, which they 

 renovated with their small wooden shov- 

 els. He indicates the height of the corn 

 by the statement that he lost his way 

 quicker in these fields than in the prairies 

 or forests (Hist, du Canada, i, 265-266, 

 1636, repr. L866). 



Indian corn, the great American cereal, 

 "was found in cultivation from the south- 

 ern extremity of Chile to the 50th parallel 

 of N. latitude" (Brinton, Myths of the New- 

 World, 22, 1868). "All tlie nations who 

 inhabit from the sea as far as the Illinois, 

 and even farther, carefully cultivate the 

 maize corn, which they make their prin- 

 cipal subsistence" (Du Pratz, Hist. La., 

 II, 239, 1763). "The whole of the tribes 

 situated in the Mississippi valley, in 

 Ohio, and the lakes reaching on both 

 sides of the Alleghenies, quite to ^Nlassa- 

 chusetts and other parts of New England, 

 cultivated Indian corn. It was the staple 

 product" (Schoolcraft, Ind. Tribes, i, 80, 

 1851). 



The great length of the period previous 

 to the discovery during which maize had 

 been in cultivation is proved by its differ- 

 entiation into varieties, of which there 

 were four in Virginia; by the fact that 

 charred corn and impressions of corn on 

 burnt clay have lieen found in the mounds 

 and in the ruins of prehistoric pueblos in 

 the S. W. ; by the Delaware tradition (see 

 Walam Olum); and by the fact that the 

 builders of the oldest mounds must have 

 been tillers of the soil. 



Some idea of the extent of the cultiva- 

 tion of maize by some of tlie tribes may 

 be gained from the following estimates: 

 The amount of corn (proljably in the ear) 

 of the Iroquois destroyed by Denonville 



ill 1687 was estimated at 1,000,000 bushels 

 (Charlevoix, Hist. Nouv. Fr., ii, 355, 1744; 

 also Doc. Hist. N. Y., i, 238, 1849). Ac- 

 cording to Tonti, who accompanied the 

 expedition, they were engaged seven days 

 in cutting up the corn of 4 villages. Gen. 

 Sullivan, in his expedition into the Iro- 

 quois country, destroyed 160,000 bushels 

 of corn and cut down the Indian orchards; 

 in one orchard alone 1,500 apple trees 

 were destroye<l ( Hist. N. Y. During the 

 Revolutionary War, ii, 3.34, 1879). Gen. 

 \Vayne, writing from (irand (ilaize in 

 1794, says: "The margins of these beauti- 

 ful rivers — the Miami of the Lake and the 

 Au Glaize — appear like one contiimous 

 village for a numlx'r of miles, l)oth above 

 and below this place; nor have I ever 

 before beheld such immense fields of 



PUEBLO CORN PLANTING 



corn in any part of America from Canada 

 to Florida" (Manypennv, Ind. Wards, 

 84, 1880). 



If we are indebted to the Indians for 

 maize, without which the peopling of 

 America would probably have l^een de- 

 layed for a century, it is also from them 

 that the whites learned the methods of 

 planting, storing, and using it. The ordi- 

 nary corncribs, set on posts, are copies 

 of those in use among the Indians, which 

 Lawson described in 1701 (Hist. Car., 35, 

 repr. 1860). 



Beans, squashes, pumpkins, sweet pota- 

 toes, tobacco, gourds, and the sunflower 

 were also cultivated to some extent, espe- 

 cially in what are now the southern states. 

 According to Beverly (Hist. Va., 125-128, 

 1722), the Indians had two varieties of 

 sweet potatoes. INIarquette, speaking of 

 the Illinois Indians, says that in addi- 



