8 Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture. 



INDIAN CORNFIELDS. 



The "hill" method of planting was the one usually fol- 

 lowed by most of the tribes. Ground was selected as a rule 

 along the banks of streams, trees were cut down and re- 

 moved, weeds and rubbish were cleared away. Land where 

 weeds grew was preferred because it was the easiest to pre- 

 pare and was thought to be the most fertile. The fields were 

 apt to be more or less irregular in shape, owing to the fact 

 that they usually followed the bends of streams. 



In preparing land for corn, the entire field was not dug up 

 and pulverized, but only space enough for each hill. Each 

 spring the stalks were removed from the hill, it was pul- 

 verized and again used for planting, so that the same hills 

 used over and over became quite large and distinctive, mark- 

 ing in after years the location of former fields. Even the 

 Indian understood the value of spacing hills and they were 

 usually 2 to 5 feet apart. 



Since the Indians practiced cooperation in their agricul- 

 tural work to quite an extent, large fields of corn were really 

 made up of hundreds of individual fields. Families helped 

 each other at planting time and harvest in many instances, 

 and at such times the fields presented a busy appearance. In 

 the upper Missouri River valley in North Dakota as re- 

 cently as 30 years ago, the Mandan, Arikara, and Gros 

 Ventre tribes cultivated a tract of about 1,200 acres not far 

 from the river banks. During the months of May and June 

 this tract must have been an interesting place to visit. Here 

 swarthy squaws toiled long hours in the hot sun, working 

 with primitive tools, the small fields being separated from 

 each other in much the same way that children's school 

 gardens are to-day. At the outskirts of the fields Indian 

 sentinels might have been seen guarding the workers from 

 the attacks of hostile tribes. Later on, in the fall of the year, 

 a procession of toilers wended their way from the fields with 

 braids of corn, carrying them to the village for storage. 



PRIMITIVE TOOLS. 



A more or less gradual evolution in the kinds of tools used 

 in corn culture has taken place. The most primitive tool 

 was 'the sharpened hardwood stick. Later, the shoulder 

 blades of the buffalo and deer, deer antlers, and clam and 



