Synopses & Reviews
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. FARMING AND FORESTRY. The Indian appeared to look upon agriculture as degrading, and the task of tilling the soil fell to the squaws and children. In order to raise corn, the Indians cleared the ground by bruising the trees near the ground and then burning the trunks and roots, thus killing them, and admitting enough light and air to grow crops of corn, beans, pumpkins, peas, and sunflowers. In the spring the dead trees on the corn plots were cut or broken down and burned to furnish ashes for the soil. Cultivation consisted in scratching the ground with sticks or bones and making hills about four feet apart with wooden hoes or clam shells. The corn was dropped in the hills and covered. Fish and crabs were sometimes used for fertilizers. Huts were built in the corn fields to protect from the ravages of birds and beasts. The growing corn was hilled up into high hills. Some of the green corn was roasted or boiled, some was dried in the husk over fires or in the sun. The dried corn was husked, shelled, packed in birch bark boxes and deposited in ground holes lined with bark to protect from freezing and moisture. The best ears were saved for seed. The dried corn was cracked in stone mortars and boiled, or pounded into meal and baked in ashes, or parched in the kernel. Succotash was made of corn with some other ingredients as pumpkins, berries, fish, or the flesh of the deer, bear, or raccoon. Grapes and many other wild fruits abounded, and plums and cherries were dried for winter use. Cornmeal mixed with maple sugar and seasoned with dried berries was a dish baked on festive occasions. Bayberry tallow was made into candles to give light and an agreeable odor. The Indian celebrated a green-corn dance, and a feast of harvest moon. Alas for them Their day is o'...
Synopsis
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