AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
405 
THE IROQUOIS, OR SIX NATIONS. 
For some weeks past we have had upon 
our table a very entertaining volume, with 
the above title, written by our frequent con¬ 
tributor, “ Minnie Myrtle,” and published in 
beautiful form by Messrs. Appleton, of this 
city. We have, from time to time, taken up 
this book for perusal, till we have read it 
through, and we can assure every one who 
peruses it, that they will find it both instruct¬ 
ive and entertaining. The subject is a de¬ 
fense of the character, and the humanity of 
the Indian tribes generally, especially of the 
Six Nations included under the general name 
of Iroquois. Minnie Myrtle has spent some 
time among the remnant of these tribes, 
studying their present and past manners, 
customs and history, and she shows them to 
be worthier of a better name than mere 
savages. The style and the incidents of the 
book are interesting, and we hope it will 
have a place in every well read public, and 
private library. We give a few extracts as 
examples of the author's defense of the much 
abused aborigines : 
* * * Almost any portrait which we 
have of Indians, represents them with toma¬ 
hawk and scalping knife in hand, as if they 
possessed no other but a barbarous nature. 
Christian nations might wdth equal justice 
be always represented with cannon and balls 
and swords arid pistols, as the emblems of 
their employments and their prevailing 
tastes. * * * There is no danger of 
painting Indians, so that they will become 
attractive to civilized people; and there is 
no need of painting them more hideously 
than they paint themselves. 
There is a bright and pleasing side to 
Indian character; and thinking that there 
has been enough written of their wars and 
their cruelties, of the hunter’s and the fisher¬ 
man’s life, I have sat down by their firesides, 
and listened to their legends, and tried to 
become acquainted with their domestic hab¬ 
its, and to understand their finer feelings, 
and the truly noble traits of their character. 
It is so long now since they were the lords 
of our soil, and formidable as our enemies— 
they are so utterly wasted away and help¬ 
less that we can afford to listen to the truth, 
and to believe that even our enemies had 
virtues. Man was created in the image of 
God, and it can not be that any thing human 
is utterly vile and contemptible. 
* * * The terible tortures they inflict¬ 
ed upon their enemies have made their name 
a terror, and yet there were not so many 
burnt and hung and starved by them as per¬ 
ish among Christian nations by these 
means. * * * But I am inclined to think 
that Indians are not alone in being savage— 
not alone barbarous, and heartless, and 
merciless. 
* * * It is not just to compare the 
Indian of the fifteenth with the Christian of 
the fifteenth century. Compare him with 
the barbarian of Britain, ol Russia, of Lap- 
land, Kamtschatka and Tartary, and repre¬ 
sent him as truly as these nations have been 
represented, and he will not suffer by the 
comparison. * * * There is nothing in 
the character of Alexander of Macedon— 
who “ conquered the world, and wept that 
he had no more to conquer ”—to compare 
with the noble qualities of King Philip, of 
Mount Hope ; and among his warriors is a 
long list of brave men unrivaled in deeds of 
heroism, by any in ancient or modern story. 
But in what country, and by whom were 
they hunted and tortured and slain ? Who 
was it that met together to rejoice and give 
thanks at every species of cruelty inflicted 
upon those who were fighting for their wives 
and their children, their altars and their God 1 
Whenitwasrecorded'that “men, women, and 
children, indiscriminately, were hewn down 
and lay in heaps upon the snow,” it is spoken 
of as doing God’s service, because they were 
nominally heathen. “ Before the fight was 
finished, the wigwams were set on fire, and 
into these, hundreds of innocent woman and 
children had crowded themselves and per¬ 
ished in the general conflagration,” and for 
this, thanksgivings are sent up to heaven. 
The head of Philip is strung bleeding upon a 
pole, and exposed in the public streets ; but 
it is not done by savage warriors, and the 
crowd that huzzas at the revolting spectacle 
assembled on the Sabbath in a Puritan 
church, to listen to the gospel that proclaims 
peace and love to all men. His body is 
literally cut in slices to be distributed among 
the conquerors, and a Christian city rings 
with acclamation. 
Speaking of the invasion of the Genesee 
Country, in 1777, by the army under General 
Sullivan, our author says : 
The villages of Wyoming and Cherry Val¬ 
ley were devastated and destroyed by British 
and Indians, and the shocking story is re¬ 
peated and dwelt upon as unparalleled in 
atrocity. The Indian is called a barbarian 
and bloodthirsty assassin—the personifica¬ 
tion of cruelty and revenge. But when it is 
recorded of the American army that “they 
were sent in every direction to overrun and 
lay waste Indian settlements, cut down their 
orchards, destroy their provisions and crops, 
kill their cattle and horses, and apply the 
besom of destruction to every thing that 
could give shelter or sustenance to man or 
beast; ” and it is added, that “ they meted 
out the full measure of destruction and deso¬ 
lation upon every settlement that came in 
their way, and actually destroyed forty 
Indian villages, one hundred and sixty thou¬ 
sand bushels of corn, vast quantities of beans 
and other vegetables, a great number of 
horses, and all farming utensils, and indeed 
every thing that was the result of labor or 
the produce of cultivation; all this being the 
unmolested and unremitting employment of 
five thousand men for three weeks ; ” and to 
close their labors of destruction, applied the 
torch to the ancient metropolis of the Seneca 
Nation, which contained one hundred and 
twenty-eight houses—many being killed and 
many taken prisoners, and all obliged to flee 
—men, women, and children—through the 
wilderness, strewing the way with the dead 
and dying—it is called “ gallant,” a “ bril¬ 
liant achievement,” a - glorious exploit! ” 
CRUELTY TO ANIMALS IN THE CRIMEA. 
The folllowing extract from McCormick’s 
“ Visit to the Camp before Sevastopal,” re¬ 
cently published by the Appleton's, will show 
some of the attendant circumstances of war. 
The Commissariat ponies and drivers left 
the village (Balaklava) every morning with 
the provisions, for the several divisions. 
Large baskets, or panniers, were fastened on 
the backs of the ponies, and in these the 
biscuit and beef was carelessly thrown. It 
was frequently the case that in the transmis¬ 
sion from cask to basket, the beef fell into 
the mud. “Is that your been” said a chap 
to his companion, who had just rescued a 
huge chunk of “ Ohio fed” that had buried 
itself in the beach mud, and thrown it into 
one of the baskets. “ No,” was the sharp 
reply, “ but it’s somebody’s beef!” 
The drivers each had some six or eight 
ponies to look after, and in the tangled mass 
of stores and human beings, it was very 
difficult for them to get their loads and effect 
a clearance. The ration rum was transport¬ 
ed to the camp in small casks, one tied on 
each side of the mule or horse conveying it. 
Nothing could exaggerate the miserable 
lot of the Commissariat ponies. It was 
generally late in the afternoon, and some¬ 
times very late at night, when they returned 
from their toilsome camp journey. Then, 
instead of the comfort of a shed to shelter 
them from the bitter weather, they were 
promiscuously huddled into an open field 
back of the village, there to live on a meager 
supply of cut straw or coarse hay, without 
even the benefit of curry-comb, blanket, or 
bedding. During the icy weather, the smooth 
flat shoes worn in nearly every instance, 
exposed the jaded animals to the most pain¬ 
ful casualties. Shiploads of fresh horses 
were constantly arriving from Varna. Many 
died on the way, and the whole camp bore 
revolting testimony to their rapid demise 
under the privations of the service. Many 
fell down with exhaustion before they had 
proceeded even one mile on their way to the 
camp. The packsaddles were instantly 
removed, and the poor creatures abandoned 
to die by inches, though now and then a 
humaqe man would relieve their tedious 
agony, by the skillful application of his re¬ 
volver. 
Every road was lined with decaying car¬ 
casses. I have passed by a hundred in a 
single day. 
The steamer Trent brought some three 
hundred first-class mules from Alicant, in 
Spain. They were remarkably stout, fat 
and glossy ; and as I saw them ranged along 
the muddy beach, when they were first land¬ 
ed, they looked spirited and gay. Two weeks 
of commissariat labor changed their appear¬ 
ance wonderfully. It seems almost incredible 
that animals should have lived at all under 
such treatment and scanty food, as they 
never failed to be subject to during the entire 
winter.” 
FEEDING, MOWING LANDS IN AUTUMN 
I am not disposed to regard the feeding of 
grass lands, in the fall, by the farm stock, as 
so decidedly injurious as many seem to sup¬ 
pose. Perhaps* there are cases where the 
future crop has, to a certain extent, been 
diminished by the excessive feeding of the 
stubble in the fall; but that in nine cases out 
of ten, perhaps in nineteen out of twenty, 
the growth of the grass is increased by the 
consumption of the aftermath of the previous 
year, I have no manner of doubt. When the 
land is low, and saturated as low lands al¬ 
most always are late in the fall, there is no 
question that the trampling of heavy cattle 
is a very decided injury, not cfnly to the soil, 
which it renders rough and uneven, but to 
the roots of the grass, which are broken and 
destroyed. I think that so far as the value 
of fall feed is concerned—unless where a 
scarcity of winter or cured feed is threatened, 
our estimate is generally too high. When 
animals are allowed a free range in mowing 
meadows or fields, after the hay crop has 
been removed, and the aftermarth allowed 
to get a good start, they are never much 
inclined to partake of drier and more retent¬ 
ive feed ; it has a tendency to satiate the 
appetite, and to create disrelish for hay and 
sometimes even for meal and grain, without 
being a substitute for either. 
I have known animals which were allowed 
to feed late in autumn, in well set luxuriant 
inclosure of aftermath, actually lose in 
weight, while the opposite result was clearly 
manifest in others which were kept up, and 
supplied only with hay. If we are so situ¬ 
ated as to be sure of a competent supply of 
cured food during the winter, without incur¬ 
ring extravagant outlays of cash, it is perhaps 
better, on the whole, to restrict our stock— 
