The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-09-20
PREHISTORIC FARMING.
Bi RENE BAclIE..

i"i'Hibts ~ luIo CbuutIy ouBnt " NC Il
much ycncratcd industry Many cen
turics before Columbus was born, the
native, Of what is now the United
states were agriculturalists. living
chiefly b. the products Of the soil,
though, To some extent, they ckcd out
an existence by bunting and fish
ing. 1t was not until the whites came
and disturbed them that the aborigi-
ncs gave UP toiling in the fields as
people must who arc constantly at war
and whose homes arc insecure.
In the days when Captain John
Smith sailed up the broad Potomac
and made his historic visit to the
chief settlement Of Powhatan, where
the city Of Washington now stands,
all that tidcwater region, covering al
area of more than twenty thousand
square miles, was covered with settle
ments. All along the shores of the
river were to be. seen comfortable
farmhouscs, built Of poles and cover
cd with birch bark, with cosy kitchen
gardens and outlying fields Of waving
corn that made the landscape bcauti-
full in autumn. Corn was then. as it
is now, the great American cereal and
the favoritc grain Of the people. Ilav-
ing originated on the highlands Of
Central America, perhaps not more
six hundred years earlier, it had been
cultivated and improved by the Mayas
of Mexico, and gradually carried north :
ward, until, by John Smith time, it
was the principal food staple in all Of
habitablc North America, short of the
Arctic zone.
The Algonuuins, under Powhatan,
besides occupying themselves with ag-
ricultural pursuits. caught fish and
gathered oysters. Theirs was a dis
trict adapted for fishing, as yell as
agriculture. and at every suitable spot
on the Potomac banks was a fishing
station, conveniently situated for
work in the oyster beds and for the
stretching Of the nets to capture the
shad, which then, as now, made an
annual pilgrimage up the river in
shoals.
In her kitchen garden the pre-Co-
lumbian squaw paid most attention to
her beans, which, though she knew
it not, were destined to become the
ancestors Of all the so.called kidney
beans, which, in many varieties, are
known to-day the world over. From
these prehistoric beans descended the
famous Boston baked beans, as we'll
as the string beans 8, highly priced by
epicures. Some Of these ancient
beans, by the way, have been found
entombed with mummies in Peru,
which uuquestionably date back to
periods earlier than the arrival of the
earliest Spaniards on this continent.
Beans were found in the ruins of Troy
by Schliemann, but not kidney beans,
mark you! It was reserved for the
prehistoric American farmer to bestow
this gift upon civilized mau.
The cognGalds Of these ancient
farmers in the tidewatcr region of the
Potomac covered many a square mile,
and in the autumn season lent besuty to
many valley with their waving tassels
True, they were not laid out like
modern cornfclds, in checkboards of
little hills, each one bearing only three
or four stalks. On the contrary, the
customary method was to make quite
n large mound, which supported con-
siderable number Of corn plants. and
this mound served for several seasons
in succession.
In front of every birch bark house
stood followed log, on end, in which
the Indian mstroa pounded her CORE
to meal. Further south, as is the
case in Mexico to-day the aborigi-
nes utilized for this purpose
stone tray and stone roller of cylin-
drical shape. Implements of this
kind are found in ancient burial pla-
ces, and are deemed much better and
more servioable than any that can be
made nowadays.
In the Southern States at the pres
ent time one often sees the followed
log standing in front Of negro cabin,
in which the mistress Of the house,
just as did the Indian squaw, brushes
the grains OF maize with. sort Of pes
tie held in both hands. It is COM
monty declared by experts t.lat moth
ing is equal to a soapstone gr;ddle for
the preparation Of corncakes. Whcth-
er that be true or not, it is certain that