12 



DICTIONARY OF INDIANS. 



Agriculture. — Continued. 



[chciiiius], so careful are they to keep 

 them clean, and this is the cause that , 

 going alone sometimes from our vil- 

 lage to another, I got lost ordinarily 

 in these fields of corn, rather than in 

 the prairies or forests" (Hist, du 

 Canada, i, 265-66, 1636). 



Maize, or Indian corn , the great Am- 

 erican cereal, was, at the time of the 

 discovery, in cultivation from Peru in 

 South America to the climatic limit 

 in North America. "It [inaize] was 

 found in cultivation from the south- 

 ern extreinity of Chili to the fiftieth 

 parallel of north latitude, beyond 

 which limits the low temperature ren- 

 ders it an uncertain crop" (Brinton, 

 Myths of the New World, 23, 1876). 

 "AH the nations I have known and 

 Avho inhabit from the sea as far as the 

 Illinois, and even farther, which is a 

 space of about 1500 miles, carefully 

 cultivate the maize corn, which they 

 make their principal subsistence" 

 (Du Pratz, Hist. La., 11, 239, 1763). 

 "The whole of the tribes situated in 

 the Mississippi valley, in Ohio, and the 

 Lakes reaching on both sides of the 

 Alleghanies, quite to Massachusetts 

 and other parts of New England, cul- 

 tivated Indian corn. It was the 

 staple product" (Schoolcraft, Ind. 

 Tribes, 1,80, 185 1). It is unnecessary, 

 however, to multiply quotations on 

 this point, as it is universally ad- 

 mitted. 



Beans, squashes, pumpkins, pota- 

 toes, and tobacco were also cultivated 

 to some extent, especially in what are 

 now the Gulf and South Atlantic 

 states. The long time previous to 

 the discovery during which maize 

 had been in cultivation is proven by 

 the fact of differentiation into vari- 

 eties of the cultivated product. Har- 

 lot, writing as early as 1587 (Brief and 

 True Report of Va., repr. 1872), men- 

 tions four different varieties. Bev- 

 erley says: "Our natives had originally 

 amongst them, Indian corn, peas, 

 beans, potatoes [sweet potatoes] and 

 tobacco. This Indian corn was the 

 staff of food upon which the Indians 

 did ever depend. . . . There are four 

 sorts of Indian corn, two of which are 

 early ripe, and two late ripe, all grow- 

 ing in the same manner. . . . The 

 late ripe corn is diversified by the 

 shape of the grain only, without re- 

 spect to the accidental differences in 

 colour, some being blue, some red, 

 some yellow, some white, and some 

 streak' d. That therefore which makes 

 the distinction is the pluinpness or 

 shrivelling of the grain ; the one looks 



as smooth and as full as the early 

 ripe corn and this they call flint corn ; 

 the other has a larger grain and looks 

 shrivell'd, with a dent on the back of 

 the grain as if it had never come to 

 perfection, and this they call ' slie- 

 corn ' " (Beverley, Hist. Va., 125-128, 

 2d ed., Lond., 1722). According to 

 the same authority the Indians had 

 two varieties of sweet potatoes. 



Marquette, speaking of the Illinois 

 Indians, says that in addition to 

 inaize, "they also sow beans and 

 melons, which are excellent, espe- 

 cially those with a red seed. Their 

 scjuashes are not of the best; they 

 dry them in the sun to eat in the 

 winter and spring" (Voy. and Dis- 

 cov., Hist. Coll. La., iv, 33, 1852). 



Some idea of the extent of the cul- 

 tivation of maize by some of the 

 tribes may be gained from the follow- 

 ing estimates: The amount of corn 

 of the Iroquois destroyed by Denon- 

 ville in 1687 was estimated at one 

 million bushels (Charlevoix, Hist. 

 Nouv. Fr., II, 355, 1744; also Doc. 

 Hist. N. Y., I, 238, 1849). According 

 to Tonty, who accompanied the ex- 

 pedition, they were engaged seven 

 days in cutting up the corn of four 

 villages. General Sullivan, in his ex- 

 pedition into the same country, de- 

 stroyed 160,000 bushels of corn and 

 cut down the Indian orchards; in one 

 orchard alone fifteen hundred apple 

 trees were destroyed (Hist. N. Y. 

 during the Revolutionary War, 11, 

 334, 1879). General Wayne, writing 

 from Grand Glaizein 1794, says, " The 

 margins of these beautiful rivers, — ■ 

 the Miamis of the Lake and the Au 

 Glaize, — appear like one continviovis 

 village for a ntimber of miles, both 

 above and below this place; nor have 

 I ever before beheld such immense 

 fields of corn in any part of America 

 from Canada to Florida" (Many- 

 penny, Our Ind. Wards, 84, 18S0). 



If we are indebted to the Indians 

 for maize, without which the peopling 

 of America would probably have been 

 delayed a century, it is also from them 

 the whites learned the method of 

 planting, storing, and using it. The 

 cribs set on posts, so common in the 

 South, are copies of those in use 

 ainong the Indians, which Lawson 

 (Hist. Carolina, 35, repr. i860) so 

 fully describes. 



The foregoing applies chiefly to the 

 region east of the Rocky mountains, 

 Imt the native population of the sec- 

 tion now embraced in New Mexico, 

 Arizona, and California in part not 

 only cultivated the soil, but relied 



