41 
ported the growing vines. In the same fields they often planted the 
sunflower, which yielded an oil esteemed by the Indians of Virginia 
for making bread and soup, but by the Iroquois mainly as an oint- 
ment. The growing of tobacco, which was far more widely spread, 
does not concern us here, since it has no value as a food. Maize, 
beans, and squashes, cultivated during the summer months, main- 
tained these Indians throughout the winter, the scjuashes being pre- 
served in underground caches lined with bark and covered with earth, 
the corn atul beans in similar caches, in specially built granaries, or, 
most often perhaps, in large bark chests retained inside the dwelling- 
Corn cviltivation amoiifj tlu‘ Ilurons. (From LafUau, </. F.; Moeurs (les 
l^auvagcs Anirri<iiiainH, vol. 2, p. 155^ Paris, 172i.) 
houses.^ So greatly did the Iroquoians de])end on agriculture that it 
actually determined the sites of their villages, which always lay close 
to fertile land, in places well adapted for defence.- The cornfields 
around their villages covered an amazing area when we consider the 
primitive tools the Indians possessed. An old writer tells us that in 
1677 the Onondaga, who mustered at that time about three hundred 
and fifty fighting men, built their village on a large hill, cleared the 
land, and planted cornfields for two miles on either side.’^ Ten years 
1 See references quoted by Waugli, F. W. ; “ Ir()quf>is Foods and Food Preparation”; Geol. Surv., 
Canada, Mem. itO, p. 42 (Ottawa, 1916). 
- Beaueliainit, W. M.: *' .AiKiritriiial Population of New York”; Xew York State Mu.s. Bull. Xo, 32, 
p. 23 (New York, 1900). 
3 Stites, S, H.: ” Kcoiioinii's of the IrtHpiois” ; Bryn Mawr C'ulleye Moiis., viil, 1, No. 3, p. 25, 
footnote (Bryn Mawr, 1905). 
S6959— 4i 
