. The story of agriculture in the United States. end much time in learning and conductingall the ceremonies of Indian government and was no small task, and took much of their time andstrength. The squaws were aided in their farm work bythe old men and the children. This occupied but a fewweeks in the summer. But since the women also pre-pared the food and clothing, theirs was a busy life. The most intelligent Indians of the Atlantic coast werethe Iroquois, who lived in what is now Central New YorkState. Here there were large towns surrounded by pali-sades. The fields of a town we
. The story of agriculture in the United States. end much time in learning and conductingall the ceremonies of Indian government and was no small task, and took much of their time andstrength. The squaws were aided in their farm work bythe old men and the children. This occupied but a fewweeks in the summer. But since the women also pre-pared the food and clothing, theirs was a busy life. The most intelligent Indians of the Atlantic coast werethe Iroquois, who lived in what is now Central New YorkState. Here there were large towns surrounded by pali-sades. The fields of a town were sometimes one hundred 8 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES or more acres in extent, and there were orchards of ap-ple, plum, and pear trees besides. During the Frenchand Indian Wars and the Revolutionary War, the whitemens armies more than once invaded this country; andit is reported that one expedition destroyed 160,000bushels of corn. The Indians of the Mississippi valley, no less thanthose of the Atlantic coast, were farmers, sometimes on a. large scale. Agriculture was naturally more importantin the South than in the North. Where the buffalo wasmore common, agriculture was less depended upon as asource of food. In the dry regions of the great plains andin the Rocky Mountains there were some tribes that car-ried on little or no agriculture, but considerable corn wasraised by tribes Kving along the Missouri River. In the region now called New Mexico and Arizona theIndians carried on agriculture by means of had reservoirs and many miles of ditches. Thesewere in some cases cut out of solid rock; and in one sandy THE INDIANS AS FARMERS 9 region they were made seven feet deep and lined withday to hold the water better. It is thought that in theSalt River Valley of Arizona 250,000 acres were were raised vast quantities of corn, sunflowers,cactus, yucca, mesquite beans, and agave. Among the Pacific Coast Indians there was little or noagriculture. The
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectagriculture, bookyear
