346 CEREALS. 



implements this plan is still pursued by all the planters of 

 the United States. 



The yield in the Virginia soil is said to have been im- 

 mense — more than a thousand fold, far more than is ever 

 raised at this day. In 1609 the first regular field, consist- 

 ing of forty acres, was planted by these colonists on James 

 River, and these bold pioneers of the new world first felt 

 themselves secure from famine. 



In 1621 two Indian chiefs, Somoset and Squanto, visited 

 the Pilgrims at Plymouth, and greatly to the dissatisfaction 

 of the other Indians, taught them how to prepare the soil 

 and plant the corn. They also planted peas and barley, the 

 seed of which they had brought over with them. They placed 

 in each hill of corn an alewife, a species of herring, as ma- 

 nure. The corn did so well that samples of it were sent to 

 England, but the barley and the peas failed. The same 

 year Stephen Hopkins and Edward Winslow went to the 

 the village of Namasket, situated where Middleborough 

 now stands, and they were received with great hospitality 

 by the Indians, who instituted feasts in their honor, the 

 principal constituents of which was corn bread, which ihey 

 called mazinne, whence the specific name maize, which with 

 venison steaks and shad formed a very savory meal to the 

 half starved emigrants. In 1629 the settlers raised, on 

 the Maseachusetts Bay large crops, which yielded about 

 five hundred fold. Thirteen gallons of seed planted yield- 

 ed three hundred apd sixty-four bushels in one field, which 

 at the present rate of planting would give about fifty-six 

 bushels of corn to the acre. This was a very fair crop, but' 

 not so good as that of the Virginia colonists, who more than 

 doubled the amount. But in the early settlement of Il- 

 linois, on the bottoms and rich prairie lands, the yield often 

 equalled that of the London colonists. 



It may be interesting to know the value of this cereal in 

 that early day, and from a price list before us we see that in 

 1630 corn sold in Massachusetts Bay at 10s. per bushel, 



