Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1902-06-05

After De Soto and his followers, the
first corn eaten by white men upon the
soil OF the Louisiana purchase was that
which Louis Joliet and Pere Jacques
Marquette received from a hospitable
band Of Indians whose village lay upon
the banks of Il small stream" sup
posed to be the Des MOines. On June %,
1873, as the explorer and his prestly
companion and historian were padding
down the Mississippi on their voyage
of discovery they saw tracks of men
on the bank somewhere near the south
ern end of what is now Iowa. Leaving
their canoe in charge of the five boat
men, they followed the tracks to the
village, where they were we'll received.
A feast was spread for them, OF
which the pieces de resistance were
"sagamittee." boiled dog. dried buffalo
meat and other delicacies relished by
the Indian palate. For the boiled dog
the guests could not conceal their dis
gust, and it was considerably removed
from the board. But they ate sufficient
~ of the buffalo meat as we'll as Of the
saganttee, which was nothing more nor
less than cOrnmeal mush favored with
grease. The historian does not mont
mate the kind of grease that the lndi
ans put into their mush. Surely the
dish was not so appetiZng as the crack
ed corn hominy which. softened with
Il hI,tt is IN ia
OH many dainty breakfast table
among the SOutherners and the Jersey
men, but the explorers ate it with good
appetite.
When they got down into the Arkan-
sas country. they had more sagamittec
from the Indians. and roasting ears ami
watermelons plenty. The watermelon
is native to Africa. but these Indians
showed their appreciation of good
thing by getting the seed from Spanish
or English colonists and planting them
The corn crop of the Louisiana coun
try is larger now than it was then. and
it is put to more diversified and vastly
more profitable uses. In the pioneer
days it was the staff of life of the race
that has possessed the great valley. 1t
was the only breadstuff carried among
their supplies by Joliet and Marquette.
The French settlers at Old Kaskaskia
rejected it as victuals fit only for cattle
and swine. The men who crossed the
Allcghanies with Boone and Sewer and
Robertson and Shelby, as we'll as those
who came into Ohio and Kentucky
higher up. travelled and fought Indians
sack OF parched corn and a little bag of
salt per man. Their powder horns,
bullet pouches and straight shooting
rifles provided all the turkey, bear and
deer meat they needed.
In these days Of commercial figures
and figuring it is of special interest to
learn from the statistician OF the treas
ury at Washington that in good years
the States and Territories of the Louisi-
ana purchase make 1,O0O.0000O0 bush
els of corn. which is jus, about half, or
a little more than half, of the American
crop. Happily this prodigious quantity
of grain is not now consumed in the
form of sagamittee and roasting ears.
Much of it goes to feed the mules and
the men who make the great cotton
crops Of the South. Vast quantities of
it go into the beef. pork and poultry
that feed the mouths Of the dense manu-
featuring and commercial population of
the northeastern seaboard States.
BY means of corn America gives
powerful aid and comfort to Europe,
fOrted in return. or corn and cornmeal
we sent abroad last year some 100000
900 worth and got the money. Then
there are the more comforting and also
more profitable items of beef, hams,
bacon. pork. lard and its compounds.
sausage and sausage meats. butter.
cheese. and other animal products. the
basis of which Is mainly corn. OF these
we blessed the outside world with an
abundance that brought nearly 5000
100000 into American pockets. Half OF
1t all comes out of the soil Of the Lo,lisi
ana purchase.
Iowa. on whose soil Joliet and Mar.
guette were fed sagamittee by the Hint
Indians. is greatest Of all corn States.
says the st. Louis Republic Nine
tenthS Of all the corn grown west OF
the Mississippi comes out of the soil OF
Iowa, Kansas. Nebraska and Missouri.
Illinois Is the only State east of the
river that turns ont a corn crop equal
ing or SURPRISING that OF any one of
these States; it is close between her and
Iowa.
UNDERGROUND ROBBERIES.