The coastland times with which is combined the pilot and herald of Belhaven and Swan Quarter. [volume] (Manteo, N.C.) 1959-1973, 1961-08-04
BY Hon. CHARLES MURPHY

1t is a happy privilege for Mrs.
Murphy and me to be here at the
Lost Colony.
We have wanted to see it for a
long time. So, when DR.. and Mrs.
Fred Morrison asked US to come for
this performance we were delighted
to accept the invitation.
We are more than happy to be
here and to share with each and
every one of you this beautiful eve
ming and the wonderful perform
ance of this pageant.
The Lost Colony is source of
justified pride for North Carolin.
ians and a matter of real siginifici-
ance for all Americans. It portrays
very wildly the beginnings of the
white man in America, and brings
home to us as few things could the
story of how we happen to live in
this blessed land of ours.
One aspect of life in those early
days which is of particular interest
to me as an employee of the De-
partment of Agriculture - is food
and agriculture. We are indebted to
Thomas Hariot for much of what is
known about agriculture in this
area at the time of the Lost Colony.
Harriet was a young Englishman
who was sent over here in 1885 by
Sir Walter Raleigh, stayed for a
year, then went home and wrote an
account of what he had learned.
Hariot wrote of many things. He
wrote to trees that grew abundant
ly and yielded pitch, tar, resin and
turpentine. He wrote of "a very
sweet wood" called cedar. He wrote
of wine, and oil, and furs, and sas-
safras.
And then he wrote of a category
of commodities yielded by Virginia
"for food and the sustenance of
life" Here we find Indian corn-a
grain which increased on a marvel
Gus scale-a thousand times and in
some cases two thousand fold. Here
we find also peas and beans and
pumpkins and melons.
Then Hariot wrote of the methods
of cultivation How the Indians
sowed corn seed in holes made with
a wooden pecker. How they were
spaced about one yard apart = and
how beans and peas and melons
were planted between the hills OF
corn.
Harriet tells of yields of corn of
200 bushels or more. He said that
one man could prepare and cultivate
as much ground with less than "a
hours labor as would supply him
food in abundance for a year.
Then he tells of tobacco. ats
leaves are dried, made into powder
and then smoked by being sucked
through clay pipes" it was SC
highly valued by the Indians that
they made holy fires and cast the
powdered tobacco into them as q
sacrifice. When there was storm
they threw the powder into the all
and on the water to pacify their
gods. And when they set up a new
weir for fish, they poured tobacco
into it.
Hariot tells of number of diff
ferent kinds of roots that were eat
en- by the Indians. One of these
was "a white root about the size
and shape of hens egg". Of this
one he said at does not taste as
good as the others; therefore, we
did not pay much attention to the
manner of its growth = still the
inhabitants often boil and eat it."
If the potato farmers in Eastern
North Carolina today are wonder
ing what is wrong with the market
for potatoes, perhaps the trouble
goes all the way back to this rather
bad advertising over $40 years ago
1t is far cry from the agricul
ture of this region in the days Of
the Lost Colony = to the American
agriculture of today. American
agriculture is now the most pro
ductive and efficient in the histor!