The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1870-06-25

lay by. The women throw off their blank
cts, and take the rake after dinner. When
the hay is heaped, two poles are run under
each cock, and the hay carried off and
stacked on dry ground. No teams are used
Those who have no stack sell their hay for
thirty dollars ton. There are forty acres
of tame grass on the Government farm by
the village, two hundred acres of pasture,
and fifty of blowing. Neighbor Indian
does all the work.
RICE HARVEST.
Rice harvest begins in August. Whole
villages of travelling camps are set up be-
side the rice-swamps. The rice grows two
feet or more above the water of the same
depth. Each family stakes off its lot of
half or three-quarters of an acre. The
rice crop is first secured against the black
birds by catching up large bundles of tops
together, and tying them with Eastwood
strings. They are tied in rows three feet
apart, and extend for miles. When the
grain can be loosened from the capsules,
gathering commences. Two squaws to
each canoe push out between the rows, one
guiding with a paddle, while the other
bends the tops over the edge of the canoe
with stick in one hand, and whips off the
grain with stick in the other. Rice har-
vest lasts three weeks, and is the gala sea-
son Of the year. The girls gather spoils
by day; the boys gather for frolic and
dance at night. During the season, four
to ten bushels of wild rice are gathered by
each family. 1t is taken home in canoes
dried on cedar-bark, and laid upon poles
over fire. When dry, the grain is hulled
by girls, who tread it out with bare feet
on hard ground. 1t is then winnowed, put
in bark sacks, and is worth six cents a
pound.
Fishing is not counted among the virtues
of farm life, but it is like light and shadow
to the Chippewa farmer. His pot of fish
is rarely empty he fishes all the year
round. He catches white fish and trout
with gill-nets in the lake, and sturgeon,
weighing forty to sixty pounds, in the river
He builds rack of piles across the river
near the mouth, and as the surgeons are
stopped in their ascent, he jerks them up
with hook and pole. The surgeons are
dressed and smoked by the women, who
have built their camp-fires near at hand.-
out on the edge of the lake, cut hole
through the ice, draw their blankets over
their heads, let down decoy fish, and
when they have attracted their prey near
the top, they fasten them with spear
They often go out five miles of morning
to catch fish for breakfast. They rarely 60
out in winter till their fish-pot is empty.
AT HOME
In his way and at home, the Chippewa
farmer is hospitable, jovial and contented.
The more provident lay in good stock of
fish, rice, potatoes, and corn for winter
The potatoes IRE buried in pit-holes four
feet deep, and covered with birch-bark and
earth. Six bushels of corn, twenty of po-
tatoes, hundred pounds of rice, two sacks
of flour, four half-barrels of fish, and fifty
pounds of pig are considered a bountiful
winters store. Summer takes care of it.
self They commence boiling corn, pump
kins, and melons when green, and continue
all the way up. They pick off the false
squash and pumpkin flowers, and boil them
with corn and pork. They boil potatoes
with fish, OF roast them in sand under the
fire. They mix flour and water, and bake
it in iron pans or boil it in dumplings.-
The Indians have great faith in dumplings,
and in that faith we are all pretty much
agreed.-F. A. MOORE, in Hearth 8 Home