203 INDIAN AGRICULTURE 
The game in the interspersed forests having 
now become scarce, and that of the western 
prairies being too remote, the frontier Indians 
have generally turned their attention to agri- 
culture, and to the raising of stock ; and most 
of them have large numbers of horses, cattle, 
and hogs. 
Some of these Indians, particularly of the 
southern nations, have very extensive farms: 
but the mass of their population extend their 
culture no further than they seem compelled 
by necessity. The traveller, passing through 
the Cherokee Nation, is struck with the con- 
trast between an occasional stately dwelling, 
with an extensive farm attached, and the mise- 
rable hovels of the indigent, sometimes not 
ten feet square, with a little patch of corn, 
scarce large enough for a family garden. In 
fact, among all the tribes who have no slaves, 
what little there is of cultivation, is mostly 
the work of the women. Scattered through 
the country, one continually encounters dilapi- 
dated huts with trifling improvements, which 
have been abandoned by the owners for some 
fancy they may have taken to some other lo- 
cation at a distance, better adapted, as they 
think, to the promotion of their comfort, and 
upon which they may live with less labor. 
Most of the labor among the wealthier 
classes of Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, 
Creeks and Seminoles, is done by negroslaves ; 
for they have all adopted substantially the 
Southern system of slavery. Some individu- 
als of these nations own over fifty slaves each: 
