Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1883-04-26
CORN IN COLONIAL TIMES.
The EIriiest Traditions Of the Yellow Maize as
Presented In the Records OF Travellers.

The first mention of corn in the pres
ent territory of the United States and
Canada seems to have been in the lee
laudic Sagas. Al. Hop. supposed by
Prof. Rain 10 be in the vicinity of Taun-
ton River, Mass, Karlsefne in 1905
''found there upon the land self-sown
fields of wheat, there where the ground
was low, but vines there where il rose
somewhat" (Voy, of the Mortimer
Prince Soc. Ed Karlsefne is said to
have sent out two Scotch people to ex-
plore. and when they returned they
brought back ga bunch of grapes and
new sown ear of wheat" Again, in
1902, Thorwald, on au island far to the
westward of Vinland, ''met with a
wooden kornhjdlmr Corn shed?), but
saw no other signs of inhabitants. nor
of wild beasts The first mention in
more modern times is in Florida and
westward where it was found by Mar
vaez in 1923 (Cabeza de Vaca). Dur
ing De Sotos invasion, 1910, macs was
found everywhere along his route, from
Florida and Alabama, to the upper part
of the State of Mississippi, probably
on the western bank of the Yazoo, in
fields or stored granaries RibauIt, in
1862, says the Florida Indians SOW their
fields with mdhiz. When Cartier visit
ed Hochelaga, now Montreal, in 1885,
that town was situated in the midst of
extensive corn-felds, the grain, ''even
as the milet of Brazil, as great and
somewhat bigger than small peason.''
They called the grain carrac0ng, and
stored it in granaries situated on the top
OF their habitations In 1913 Cham
plain mentions corn growing in fields,
'feebly scratched with hoes of wood or
bone" at Lake Coulange, in the Otta-
wa River.
In 1889 Marco de MIA, in a journey
TO Cibola, New Mexico, found maize.
In 1910, Cornado, in march from
Mexico ending at Quiyira, supposed by
Bancroft to be within the present terri
tory of Kansas, found'corn everywhere
in abundance wherever arabic soil, APP
parently, could be found, and he men
tons that the Zuni Indians practiced IL
rigatiOn. Alarcon in 1910 found the
Indians of the Colorado river growing
abundance of corn, and it is referred
to again by EspIjo in 1888. The Navajo
Indians have this tradition. "All the
wise men being one day assembled,
turkey-hen came flying from the drec-
ton OF the morning star and shook
from her feathers an car of blue corn
into the midst Of the company" (Ban-
croft) At the present time, blue, yell |
low, white, red and even black corn is
cultivated in New Mexico. the blue /!
being predominant, and most esteemed |
(Massie). In Virginia in 1885, Sir
Richard Grenville is recorded as hay !
ing destroyed the standing corn of the |
natives. Heriot in 1886, says pagatour
a kind of grain called maize in the West |
Indies. 1t is mentioned by Strachey |
under the name of po6atdGeS In "A !
True Declaration of Virginia. 1910. |
the corn is said to grow to height of !
twelve or fourteen feet, yielding some |
four, five or six ears on every stalk; and !
in every case some five hundred, some |
six hundred, some seven hundred |
cornes." And corn cultivated after the
Indian method was grown by the colon
lists in 1908, the first successful attempt |
by Englishmen on record
In New England corn was mentioned |
in 1905 by Champlain, who saw 1t in
cultivation by the Indians at the mouth
of the Kennebec, and he describes the
method of planting, AT Cape Cod he
little later he saw fields of corn, and
also helds lying fallow. He mentions
the method used for preservation to be
in pits dug in sand on the slopes of the
hills, into which the large grass sacks
OF corn We're stored, and then buried.
In 1920 Miles Standish, exploring for
the Pilgrims, found the fields in stubble,
for it was November, and finally under
a heap of sand, newly made, we
might see how they padded it with
their hands, " "a fine, great, new basket
full of very fairc corn, of this year.
with some siX-and-thirty goodly ears of
corn, some yellow, and some red, and
others MKT with blue Mounts Rela-
tom In 1929 Higginson saws, There
Is not such create and plentiful cares
OF corne, | suppose, anywhere else to
be found but in this country because,
also of varieties of colours.-as red,
blew, and yellow, etc. and ofone corne
there springeth four or five hundred
Josselyn says "lndian wheat of which
there is three sorts, yellow, red and
blew. The blew is commonly ripe be-
fore the others, a month"; In August
1886, when the English made their at
tack ON the Indians of Block Island.
1.-Two hundred acres Of corn were under
cultivation, and the maize, already
partly harvested, was piled in heaps to
be stored away for winter use" DRY
ant.) The Indians have a tradition,
says Roger Williams, that 1.-THE crow
brought them at first an Indian grain
of cGrn i'll one care, and an Indian or
French bean in another, from the great
goQ Kautantouwits' field in the South
west, from whence they hold came all
their corn and beanes."
Indian corn was found as common
food when Europeans first landed at
New York in 1909, extensive fields being
cultivated and the grain preserved
(Delaiield,) and in 1865 when lie Moline
navigated Lake Ontario and landed
among the Senecas they gave him
"bread made from Indian corn, of a
kind to be roasted at the fire. Obj. In
1857 in an INVASION into the country of
the Senecas by Marquis de Nouville,
the quantity destroyed was estimated at
I,200,0 900 bushels doe. Hist, of n. Y,
ID, and in 1926 the French Army under
Frontenac invaded the country of the
Onondagas and spent three days in des-
troying the growing crops in the fields
which extended a league and a half
from the fort Gb.). In 1858 De Vries
obtained from the Indians on the Della
ware river Indian corn and peas, and
1896 the Rev John Campanius in his
Delaware and Swedish translations of
the Catechism, accommodates the Lords
PRAYER to the circumstances of the In
dams, thus: instead of give us our
daily bread he has it. "a plentiful sup
ply of venison and corn The Indians
on the Delaware were very fond of hasty
pudding, which they called sappaun,
and Campauitis relates how the Sachems
and other Indians were Toasted upon it
it 1854.
In 1850 Hennepin found corn every
where in his Journey from Niagara to
the Mississippi River. Marquette in
1913, Allowez in 1876, and Membre in
1879. all mention its cultivation bv the
Illinois Indians The Mandan Indians, |
according to Catlin, cultivate a variety |
whose ears are not larger than man /
thumb The Tuscarora corn is thought !
to be the variety cultivated by the North |
Carolina Indians upon the settlement of
their country, and was introduced into |
the State of New Yes i'm t712. when |
the Tuscarora Indian. migrated thither.
The corn raised by the Yakima Indians |
of Washington Territory is an eight |