SwANTON] tNlDlAKS OP THE SOUTHEASTERN tJNITED STATES 309 



prepare the land well enough, as the soil is light. When the ground is suffi- 

 ciently broken up and levelled, the women come with beans and millet, or 

 maize. Some go first with a stick, and make holes, in which the others place 

 the beans, or grains of maize. After planting they leave the fields alone, as 

 the winter in that country, situated between the west and the north, is pretty 

 cold for about three months, being from the 24th of December to the 15th of 

 March; and during that time, as they go naked, they shelter themselves in the 

 woods. When the winter is over, they return to their homes to wait for their 

 crops to ripen. After gathering in their harvest, they store the whole of it 

 for the year's use, not employing any part of it in trade, unless, perhaps 

 some barter is made for some little household article. (Le Moyne, 1875, p. 9, 

 illus.; Swanton, 1922, p. 359.) 



From Calderon, the missionary Bishop of Cuba who visited Flor- 

 ida in 1675, we have the following : 



During January they burn the grass and weeds from the fields preparatory 

 to cultivation. ... In April they commence to sow, and as the man goes 

 along opening the trench, the woman follows sowing. All in common cultivate 

 and sow the lands of the caciques. As alms for the missionaries and the needy 

 widows they sow wheat [corn] in October and harvest it in June. This is a 

 crop of excellent quality in the province of Apalache, and so abundant that 

 it produces seventy fanegas from one fanega sown. (Wenhold, 1936, p. 13.) 



Adair supplies the following notes regarding Chickasaw farming: 



Every dwelling-house has a small field pretty close to it ; and, as soon as the 

 spring of the year admits, there they plant a variety of large and small beans, 

 peas, and the smaller sort of Indian corn, which usually ripens in two months, 

 from the time it is planted; though it is called by the English, the six weeks 

 corn. Around this small farm, they fasten stakes in the ground, and tie a 

 couple of long split hiccory, or white oak-sapplings, at proper distances to keep 

 off the horses .... Their large fields lie quite open with regard to fencing, and 

 they believe it to be agreeable to the best rule of economy ; because, as they say, 

 they can cultivate the best of their land here and there, as it suits their con- 

 veniency, without wasting their time in fences and childishly confining their 

 improvements, as if the crop would eat itself. The women however tether the 

 horses with tough young bark-ropes, and confine the swine in convenient penns, 

 from the time the provisions are planted, till they are gathered in ... . The 

 chief part of the Indians begin to plant their out-fields, when the wild fruit is so 

 ripe, as to draw off the birds from picking up the grain. This is their general 

 rule, which is in the beginning of May, about the time the traders set off for the 

 English settlements .... The women plant also pompions, and different sorts 

 of melons, in separate fields, at a considerable distance from the town, where 

 each owner raises an high scaffold, to over-look this favourite part of their vege- 

 table possessions : and though the enemy sometimes kills them in this their strict 

 watch duty, yet it is a very rare thing to pass by those fields, without seeing them 

 there at watch. This usually is the duty of the old women, who fret at the very 

 shadow of a crow, when he chances to pass on his wide survey of the fields ; but 

 if pinching hunger should excite him to descend, they soon frighten him away 

 with their screeches .... They commonly have pretty good crops, which is 

 owing to the richness of the soil ; for they often let the weeds outgrow the corn, 

 before they begin to be in earnest with their work, owing to their laziness and 

 unskillfulness in planting; and this method is general through all those nations 

 that work separately in their own fields, which In a great measure checks the 



