HISTORY OF THE AGRICULTURE OF THE UNITED STATES. BY BEN: PERLEY POORE, WEST NEWBURY, MASSACHUSETTS. AGRICULTURE, although recognized as the basis of our national prosperity, has been ignored by our nation's historians. The exploits of our soldiers, the daring of our sailors, the learning of our scholars, the careers of our business men, have all been duly chronicled, yet I have never seen any connected mention of our agriculture, which (as the quicksilver in a thermometer shows the temperature) ever marks the position of a community upon the scale of civilization. It is eminently the art of the world's advanced age; its science is prospective; every day's addition to the population of a country enforces it upon human notice and intelligence with the repeated force of daily necessity. Other sciences invite man; agriculture importunes him. Clouded as its earliest annals may be, it remains ever ready to receive fresh illumination from the gradual advancement of all around it; and, as such, it will probably reveal itself more clearly with every progress made by each art and science in their respective courses. It is well, however, to preserve a record of what has been done, that the agricultural history of the United States may be as well known as is that of ancient Egypt and Rome. True, there are those who assert that history is not more valuable than an old almanac-which, for their individual compreliensions, is undoubtedly true; but as an old almanac will serve as a future guide to him whose far-seeing eye can trace the brilliant course of the celestial luminaries, so a history of our home agriculture will enable the sensible yeoman to trace the progress of our prosperity. Of course this article contains no original ideas; but the facts which it embodies have been carefully compiled from a variety of reliable sources. AGRICULTURE OF THE INDIANS. The North American aborigines were not an agricultural people; the cultivation of the soil was considered among them as a degrading occupation for the men of the tribes, who left it to the old women and children. Captain John Smith, who visited Virginia in 1609, says: "The greatest labor they take is in planting their corn, for the country is naturally overgrown with wood. To prepare the ground they bruise the bark of trees near the roots, then do they scorch the roots with fire that they grow no more." This custom of theirs, it probably was, that suggested to our ancestors the process of belting or girling, which killed the larger trees by cutting through the sap-wood, cansed the fall of spray and lesser branches, and thereby admitted the sun and air to the crop cultivated in their intervals a practice which, as compared with the method of clearing off the entire growth, enables the settler of new lands to increase the area of virgin soil under culture in more than geometrical ratio; which has kept pace with our ever advancing frontier, and which, more than any other, has enabled the white race "to enter in and possess the good land that lay before them." The land being cleared-and a field once thus prepared was used for many successive years-the squaws would make preparations for planting early each spring. First burning the dead wood on the ground, and often bringing dry branches to burn, that they might obtain their fertilizing ashes, they would then cultivate, or rather root up the surface, with the flat shoulder-blades of the moose, or with crooked pieces of wood. They would then mark the future hills by making small holes, (about four feet apart,) with rude wooden hoes or clam-shells; put into each one an alewife from some adjoining stream, or a horse-shoe crab from the sea-shore; and on this stimulant drop and cover a half dozen grains of corn. The land thus planted was guarded against the depredations of the birds, and as the corn grew the earth was laboriously scraped up around the stalks with clam-shells, until the hills were two feet high. To use the words of Smith, "they hill it like a hop field." While the stalk and leaves were yet green, the ears were plucked. The next year's seed was selected from those stalks which produced the most ears, and was triced up in their wigwams. The remainder of the crop was carried in back-baskets to stagings, where it was dried in the husk, on stagings, over smouldering fires; then husked, shelled, packed in largo birchbark boxes, and buried in the ground, below the action of the frost. "O-mo-neo" was this dried corn, cracked in a stone mortar, and then boiled; when pounded into meal and sifted through a basket, to be made into ash-cakes, it was called "Sup-paun." The warriors, when on a war-path, subsisted on parched corn, which they called "Nokake." Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island, speaks of having "travelled with two hundred Indians at once, nearly two hundred miles through the woods, every man carrying a little basket of this at his back, suflicient for one man three or four days." "With their corn," says Smith, "they plant also peas they call assentamus, which are the same they call in Italy fagiolia. Their beans are the same the Turks call garnaness, but these they much esteem for dainties." "In May, also, among their corn they plant pumpeons, and a fruit like unto a musk-melon, but less and worse, which they call macocks." These additional crops not only keep the ground around the roots of the growing corn moist, but they supply materials for the celebrated Indian dish called "mu-si-quatush," which has been changed into sucatush. This was not then, however, simply composed of corn and beans, for we are told, by Gordkin, that they boiled in it "fish and flesh of all sorts, either new taken or dried-venison, bear's flesh, beaver, moose, otter, or raccoon, cut into small pieces; Jerusalem artichokes, ground-nuts, acorns, pumpkins, and squashes." At the northwest wild rice was gathered, and kept for winter use; and Barlowe, who visited North Carolina in 1584, asserted that he saw there "both wheat and oats." It is not improbable that oats were found growing wild there, as they are known to grow wild on other portions of the continent; but doubts may be entertained as to the wheat, although he, an Englishman, should have known that grain. Dr. Hawks thinks, however, that he saw some variety of the triticum, and, without critical examination, pronounced it wheat. The sunflower was also cultivated for its seeds, of which bread was made. "Mish-i-min," in the Algonquin tongue, signifies apple; although it is the opinion of some learned writers that this fruit was unknown among them before the arrival of the Europeans. Several old printed compilations of early voyages, however, reckon apples among the early native fruits; and, unless crab-stocks were found, it does not appear how the large orchards, mentioned by early writers, could have been made productive so soon. Mr. Walcott, a distinguished Connecticut magistrate, wrote in 1635, (certainly not inore than five years after his colony was first planted,) "I made five hundred hogsheads of cider out of my own orchard in one year." This would have been almost impossible, had he been obliged to raise his orchard from the seed, or had he planted trees of such a size as could have been transported through the trackless wilderness. The apple may not be indigenous to this country, and yet the Indians may have possessed it, as they did corn, which is not a native of their soil. Certain it is that they had orchards of cherries and of plums; large stores of which were dried for 'winter uso. Tobacco was everywhere cultivated; hugo grape-vines entwined many a forest tree, and there was an abundance of berries in the woods. Gourds were raised in great numbers, and of all sizes, from the large "cal-a-bash-es" that would hold two or three gallons each, to the tiny receptacles of pigments used in painting for war. From the sap of the maple they made a coarse-grained sugar, which, when mixed with freslily-pounded "sup-pann," and seasoned with dried whortleberries, was baked into a dainty dish for high festivals. The dried meats of oil-nuts, pounded and boiled in a decoction of sassafras; was their only beverage at such feasts; and from the green wax of the bayberry they made candles, with rush wicks, which gave clear lights, and yielded a pleasant fragrance while burning. Their wigwams were constructed of saplings, set into the ground in a circle, and then drawn together at the top until they formed a conical frame some nine or ten feet high at the apex. This was covered with thick mats of woven grass, or with large sheets of birch bark, sewed together with the dried sinews of the deer, and then calked with some resinous gum. A mat served as a door; in the centre was a stone hearth, with an opening above it for the escape of the smoke. The only article of furniture was a large couch, clevated about a foot from the ground, and spread with dressed skins and mats. Birch-bark boxes were used to hold finery and provisions, while the framework of the wigwam was hung with war-clubs, bows, bundles of arrows, fish-spears, hoes, axes, and other rude implements which the Indians possessed. Unacquainted with the use of iron, their cutting instruments and sharp weapons were pointed with flint-stone, shells, or bones, and their earthen vessels were of the coarsest description. They had no domestic animals except a few small dogs, and no poultry. Such was the primitive agricultural life of the Indians, who have been gradually blotted out from their pleasant homes, to make way for the "pale-faces." On many sunny slopes now smiling with cultivation were their cheerless wigwams, their crabbed orchards, and their ill-tilled corn-patches. Beneath the shade of forests long since felled, and where flourishing communities now dwell, they tracked the wild beast to his lair, or reposed, weary of the chase, to partake of their slaughtered game. Where spires now point leavenward, and the doors of school-houses "swing on their golden hinges," the war-hatchet was unburied, or the "calumet" of peace was whiffed, or the "pow-wows" went through their mystic incantations. And as we meet at cattle-shows and agricultural anniversaries, so the Indians, in their day, celebrated the "green corn dance," or the "feast of the chestnut moon." "Alas for them-their day is o'er: Their fires are out from hill and shore The pale man's axe rings through their woods. SPANISH COLONIAL AGRICULTURE. Spain having discovered America, endeavored to colonize the regions of which so many wonderful and mysterious accounts were circulated by the early naviga tors. As early as 1520 a royal edict, "in order the better to facilitate the emigration and permanent establishment of colonists, offered to all who wished to go, provisions for a year; to defray the transportation of their supplies and persons; exemption from all duties and imposts; and the perpetual ownership of the houses they might construct and the lands they might cultivate." But the needy adventurers who flocked to the New World sought gold and glory rather than homes and lands, especially those who landed on the shores of Florida. The expedition which landed at Tampa bay, and followed the stern De Soto to the Mississippi river, were in search of El Dorado, and had no desire to cultivate any of the fertile regions over which they passed during their toilsome march. But the home government desired a more permanent colonization, and, in 1565, we find that Spain granted to Francisco de Eraso "twenty-five leagues square, (3,600,000 acres,) to be located wherever he pleased, in Florida, with the office of governor, and various other titles and privileges for himself and heirs, exempting them from imposts and duties, on condition that he should provide several caravals for exploration, and colonize his tract, within three years, with 500 settlers, most of whom should be husbandmen, 500 slaves, 100 horses and mares, 200 heifers, 400 swine, and 400 ewes." Several colonies were thus established, but they did not prosper, and little was done to improve the cultivation of the soil until the English took possession in 1763. When the Spaniards regained possession, agriculture was again neglected, fields were allowed to grow up with briers, and sugar-houses to rot down. THE PURITAN ENGLISH COLONISTS. The English Puritans, who settled in New England, were men who regarded civil and religious liberty as the primary object of rational beings. To use their own words, "they left their pleasant and beautiful homes in England to plant their poor cottages in the wilderness," that they might worship God as revelation and conscience might teach, and found a free agricultural state equal to Palestine in its palmiest days, when Israel's kings had "herds of cattle, both in the low country and on the plains, granaries for their abundant crops, husbandmen also, and vine-dressers in the mountains." The sacred light of biblical history was not to them like the stern-light of a vessel, only illuminating what had been passed over, but rather the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire moving before them on the path of life, giving guidance by day and assurance by night. The fate of Babylon, of Nineveh, of Carthage, of Venice, of Genoa, and many commercial governments of central Europe, warned them "That trade's proud empire hastes to swift decay, As ocean sweeps the labored mole away." In England agriculture has long been regarded as the most favorable occupation for the development of Christianity, and had, prior to the reformation, received the special attention of the clergy. The first gardens and orchards were those of the benedictine monks, and the general council of Lateran decreed that "all presbyters, clerks, monks, converts, pilgrims, and peasants, when they are engaged in the labors of husbandry, shall, together with the cattle in their ploughs and the seed which they carry into the field, enjoy perfect security; and that all who molest and interrupt them, if they do not desist when admonished, shall be excommunicated." Nor were the followers of Luther less devoted to agriculture than their Roman predecessors, especially when it was found that the doctrines of the reformed church made but slow progress in the cities and towns. Dorsetshire and Wiltshire, the English homes of the Puritans ere they made their exodus to a transatlantic Canaan, are even now remarkable for their almost total absence of the usual signs of trade and manufactures; and we are informed by Bancroft that those who first went to Holland were anxious to emigrate again because they "had been bred to agricultural pursuits," yet were there "compelled to learn mechanical trades." "They sought our shores," said Mr. Webster, "under no high-wrought spirit of commercial adventure, no love of gold, no mixture of purpose, warlike or hostile, to any human being. Accustomed in their native land to no more than a plain country life and the innocent trade of husbandry, they set the example of colonizing New England, and formed the mould for the civil and religious character of its inhabitants." This desire on the part of the Puritans that "New England" should be an agricultural community was strikingly manifested by the corporation of Massachusetts Bay, whose charter extended from a line three miles south of Charles river to another three miles north of "any and every part" of the Merrimac, Each contributor and each stockholder received two hundred acres of land for every fifty pounds sterling paid in, while stockholders and others who emigrated at their own expense received fifty acres for each member of their family and each "indented servant." This shows that it was a rural home in this land of freedom, and not town lots or semi-annual dividends, that these liberal adventurers sought, and we find further confirmation of their agricultural proclivities in the inventories of the supplies sent by the corporation to the new colony. "Vyne planters" are mentioned usually after "ministers;" then come hogsheads of wheat, rye, barley, and oats, unthreshed; beans, peas, and potatoes; stones of all kinds of fruit; apple, pear, and quince kernels; hop, licorice, and madder roots; flax and woad seed; currant plants, and tame turkeys. Cattle were imported by the colonists, not only from various parts of England, but from Holland, Denmark, and the Spanish Main, forming a noble foundation for that "native stock" which, when carefully reared and well fed, is at least equal to many of the vaunted imported breads. Horses, sheep, swine, and goats were also imported from Europe in large numbers. Neither was horticulture neglected, for we find that Governor Endicott had a vegetable garden and vineyard in 1629, and two years afterwards he planted the famous pear orchard of which one venerable survivor still bears the patriarchal honors. The rights of the Indians, it is pleasing to record, were scrupulously observed by the first settlers of Massachusetts Bay. More than fifty years before William Penn made his much-talked-of treaty with the natives at Philadelphia, announc ing those principles of amity and of equity upon which he desired that their future intercourse should be conducted, the officers of the company in England wrote to Governor Endicott: "And, above all, we pray you be careful that there be none in our precincts permitted to do any injury, in the least kind, to the heathen people; and if any offend in that way let them receive due correction. And we hold it fitting that we publish a proclamation to that effect, by leaving it fixed under the company's seal in some eminent place, for all to take notice, at such time as both the heathen themselves, as well as our people, may take notice of it. If any of the savages pretend right of inheritance to all or any part of the land granted in our patent, we pray you endeavor to purchase their title, that we may avoid the least scruple of intrusion." This order was religionsly obeyed, and there was hardly a town where the Indian title was not extinguished by purchase. The immigrants found that Boston had "sweet and pleasant springs and good land affording ich corn grounds and fruitful gardens;" mnt as their numbers and the numbers of their cattle increased, they formed colonies in various directions, especially in "Wonne-squam-sauke," (now Essex county,) for amid its "pleasant waters" were unwooded meadows suitable for pasturage and for grass cutting, while the uplands were well adapted for tillage. Squatter sovereignty was unknown, for no individuals were permitted to establish themselves within the limits of the colony. Each body swarmed out in community, with a regular allotment of individual farms, based in extent upon the wealth of the settlers, and a great pasture, a peat meadow, a salt marsh, and fishing grounds held in comThese farms were so laid out that no honse was over half a mile from the meeting-house, and it was with astonishing rapidity that agricultural communities sprang up like the fabled warriors of Cadmus into full-armed life. Like those mythological knights, they were armed with weapons, not for their own destruction, but for the defence of their liberties and their homes. From these small farming hamlets have grown up most of the towns and cities of our country, and from one of them afterwards went forth the alpha of colonization in the great west. In the log cabin of that agricultural era were first cultivated the true, though austere religion, the domestic virtues, the sturdy habits of frugal industry, the daring spirit, and the devoted love of liberty that have so advanced the mon. |