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


much venerated industry. Many GEN.
turies before Columbus was born, the
natives Of what is now the United
States were agriculturalists, living
chiefly by the products of the soil,
though, to some extent, they eked out
an existence by hunting and fish
ing. Il was not untilth whites came
and disturbed them that the aborigi-
mes gave up toiling in the felds-as
people must who are constantly at war
and whose homes are 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 tidewater region, covering an
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
farmhouses, built Of poles and cover
ed with birch bark, with cosy kitchen
gardens and outlying fields Of waving
corn that made the landscape beauti-
full in autumn. Corn was then, as it
is now, the great American cereal and
the favorite grain Of the people. Hav-
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 Smiths time, it
was the principal food staple in all OF
habitable North America, short Of the
Arctic zone.
The Algonquins, under Powhatan,
besides occupying themselves with ag-
ricultural pursuits. caught fish and
gathered oysters. Theirs was a dis
trict adapted for fishing, as we'll 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-
lumbar squaw paid most attention to
her beans, which, though she knew
| it not, we're 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 50 highly priced by
epicures. Some Of these ancient
beans, by the way, have been found
entombed with mummies in Peru,
which unquestionably 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 man.
The cornfelds Of these ancient
farmers in the tidewater region of the
Potomac covered many square mile,
and in the autumn season lent beauty to
many valley with their waving tassels
True, they were not laid out like
modern corn6elds, in checkboards OF
little hills, each one bearing only three
or four stalks. On the contrary, the
customary method was to make quite
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 matron pounded her corn
to meal Further south, as is the
case in Mexico to-day the aborigi-
mes utilized for this purpose a
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 servicable 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, crushes
the grains Of maize with a sort Of pes
tie held in both hands. 1t is COM
monty declared by experts t.iat moth
ing is equal to soapstcne griddlc for
the preparation of corncakes. Whcth-
er that be true or not, til certain that
the prehistoric Algonquin matron used