USA > Massachusetts > The story of western Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 12
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The width of a dug-out canoe was but the breadth of a man and an especially large tree was not required for its construction, yet so scarce were such trees that in Springfield, as early as February 14, 1638-39, provision was made for their conservation. On April 16, 1640 restrictions were made even more drastic and it was "ordered that no man shall fall any canoe tree that shall be within the bounds of the plantation". Here was a tract of at least twenty-five or thirty square miles, with a total adult population of seventeen, in which there were not available enough canoe trees so that they could be freely used. Less than one tree to a square mile would have pro- vided a canoe for every inhabitant.
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In 1639 the town of Newport, Rhode Island, proceeded "against Ralph Earle for his falling of timber contrary to order" and provided that none of it should be removed from the town.
In 1672 Springfield appointed a committee to examine "the timber of the cedar swamps at Manchconis and make purchase (from the Indians) of what they judge needful for the town".
Guilford, Connecticut, ordered "all cedar swamps to be reserved for the town's use".
Similar restrictions will be found in the records of almost all of the earlier established towns, indicating an extreme scarcity of timber. Even if the early settlers had been conversant with the details of log house construction, such uneconomical use of lumber would have pro- hibited their use. Students, architects and historians have repeatedly pointed out the fallacy of the tradition that the first homes of the New England pioneers were log cabins, yet novelists, poets and painters continue to resuscitate the legend and keep it alive. The persistence with which such misleading tales are repeated and believed by intelligent people, is beyond comprehension. Familiarity with the literature of the period should alone convince one of the palpableness of such an error
It is true that the first homes of the first settlers in certain towns were log houses, but not in the earliest established settlements.
CHAPTER XI America's Three Gifts
A MERICA'S three greatest gifts to the world were tobacco, pota- toes and Indian corn, none of which were known to the Eastern Hemisphere prior to the discovery of America. Tobacco never became an economic factor in colonial New England, nor did the potato until the first quarter of the 18th century.
The true potato is the sweet potato which was first encountered by Europeans in the West Indies where the natives gave to members of the first Columbus expedition "some boiled roots to eat, not unlike chestnuts in taste". The name itself is a corruption of the native name batata. This sweet potato became quite popular with the early pioneers and it is the batata which is usually meant by the early English writers when they mention potatoes and which were brought into New England in the seventeenth century.
John Winthrop, Jr., and Thomas Mayhew financed a speculative voyage to the West Indies during the winter of 1635-1636, shipping out corn and pork and returning to New England with potatoes, oranges and lemons. Governor Winthrop, at Boston, March 8, 1636, said that "the ship Rebecca came from Bermuda with thirty thousand weight of potatoes, bought there for two shillings eight pence a bushel and sold here for two pence a pound". The standard of weight for sweet potatoes being fifty-four pounds to the bushel, there' were five hundred fifty-five bushels in this shipment. With a cost for the lot of seventy-five pounds sterling in Bermuda and a retail price of two hundred and fifty pounds sterling at Boston, the potatoes alone provided a neat profit considering that it was for but one leg of a two-way voyage, of which the outward trip was probably equally lucrative. Yet the retail price of nine shillings ($2.16) a bushel at Boston was not at all exorbitant, compared with home-grown wheat which was then priced at six shillings a bushel.
From Saybrook, Connecticut, Lionel Gardiner wrote to the younger Winthrop at Boston, on November 6, 1636,-"I hear that the barque, the Bachelor, is to bring us provisions. I pray you that when she comes from the Bermudas, you will remember us with some potatoes, for there hath been some Virginians here that hath taught us to plant them after another way, and I have put it in practice
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and found it good". But that was years before white potatoes were even known of in New England.
No European ever saw a white potato until Pedro de Cieza de Leon, in 1538, found the natives in the Cauca valley of Columbia living on a "kind of ground nut, which, when boiled, becomes as soft as a cooked chestnut".
About 1580 Spanish ships took this "truffle" to Europe, where via Vienna, with the careful nursing of Charles L'Ecluse, it reached
Tobacco Barn, Hadley
Germany. There it is still known under the misnomer of truffle (kartoffel). The original settlers of the Pennsylvania Dutch section of Pennsylvania came from their native Rhine valley at the invita- tion of William Penn. Here their descendants today continue to regale their guests with kartoffel kloesse (potato croquettes) as did their ancestors in Germany, three centuries ago.
In the first half of the seventeenth century the potato reached Ireland where it made no great impression for a time, but it was eventually taken up with much enthusiasm, for not only was it recog- nized as a good substitute for the staple oatmeal (potatoes dipped in salted milk becoming the daily diet of the Irish peasantry) but the sons of Erin found that it made a most excellent whiskey. Lord
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Chesterfield, who wrote those famous "Letters to His Son", said to him,-"A quart of soup and two pounds of potatoes for your supper will enable you to pass the night without too great impatience for your breakfast next morning. The potato is the constant diet of my old friends and countrymen, the Irish, who are the healthiest and strongest men that I know in Europe".
After the siege of Londonderry, Ireland, came the emigration of the northern Irish Protestants to America and those Scotch-Irish brought the potato with them to Londonderry in 1719. Thence its cultivation spread all over America and today it is grown in all the temperate countries of the world. In the early stages of its culture, many humorous incidents were due to misunderstandings and often the vines were boiled and eaten, the potato itself remaining unsus- pected in the ground until thrown out by the plow the following spring.
Corn is a generic name for all seeds used in making bread. It has also a specific sense and in any country it denotes the prevalent breadstuff of the people. Thus, in England, corn means wheat; in Scotland it means oats; and in America, maize or Indian corn. The early New England settlers called it Indian corn or Indian wheat, or often simply Indian.
To the Indian, corn was literally the staff of life. Meat he seldom had, as game was not plentiful and his means for taking such were limited, hence corn and fish were his main articles of food. To the Indian of southern New England, corn was known as weatchimin (the plant or corn in the field), plural weatchiminneash. The word is compounded of min, plural minneash, grain, fruit and a word which is related to meechum, he eats it; the primitive form or radical force of which it is impossible to determine.
Maize was not unknown in England in the sixteenth century. John Gerard, the Elizabethan herbalist investigated the qualities of the plant and expressed an unfavorable opinion. In 1597 he wrote: "It cometh to ripeness when the summer falleth out to be fair and hot as myself has seen in mine own garden near Fetter Lane in Holborn, London. It doth nourish far less than either wheat, rye, barley or oats".
As early as 1645 "divers worthy persons, inquisitive into natural philosophy and other parts of human learning did meet weekly in London to treat of such affairs". After the Restoration, these per- severing philosophers were, in 1662, through the "grace and favor" of Charles II, incorporated into the Royal Society of London, for the promotion of natural knowledge. To this Society, John Winthrop, Jr., then Governor of Connecticut, and in London on official business, was elected to membership in 1662, the year of its incorporation. From such colonials, the Society solicited and received voluminous reports on natural resources of value to Great Britain. In accordance with that custom and perhaps as an initiatory duty, Winthrop sub- mitted the following essay.
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"INDIAN CORNE
The Corne which was used in New England before the English inhabited any of those parts, is called by the Natives there Weachim, and is the same which hath beene knowne by the Name of Mays in some Southerne partes of America. This sorte of Corne is generally made use of in many parts of America for their food, and although in the Northerne Plantations, where the English and Dutch are settled, there is plenty of Wheat, and other Graine, yet this sort of Corne is still much in use there both for Bread, and other kind of food made out of it. It seemes in those times before it was so well knowne, Mr. Gerard had beene informed of it, as if it were a Graine not so pleasant or fitt to be Eaten by mankind, as may appeare by what he writeth of it in his Herball page 83, That it is hard of Digestion, and yeildetli little or no Nourishment etc. (yet acknowl- edgeth, there had beene yet no certaine proofe or experience of it), yet it is now found by much Experience, that it is wholesome and pleasant for Food of which great Variety may be made out of it.
The Composure of the Eare is very beautifull, being sett in Even Rowes, every Graine in each Rowe over against the other, at equall distance, there being commonly Eight Rowes upon the Eare and sometimes more, according to the Goodness of the Ground. It hath also usually above thirty Graines in one Row, the number of Rowes and Graines being according to the Strength of the Ground, the Eare is commonly about a Span long.
Nature hath delighted it selfe to beautify this Corne with great Variety of Colours, the White, and the Yellow being most common, being such a yellow as is betwene Straw Colour, and a pale yellow; there are also of very many other Colours, as Red, Yellow, Blew, Olive Colour, and Greenish, and some very black and some of Inter- mediate degrees of such Colours, also many sorts of mixt colours and speckled or striped, and these various coloured Eares often in the same field and some Graines that are of divers Colours in the same Eare.
This Beautifull noble Eare of Corne is Cloathed and Armed with strong thick huskes of many doubles, which provident nature hath made usefull to it many wayes, for it not onely defends it from the cold, and too much moisture of unseasonable Raine (which sometimes may happen) and the Cold of the Nights which might hinder the Ripening of it (being the latter end of September in some parts before it be full Ripe) and possibly the Injury of some blasting Winds, but also defends it from the Crowes, Sterlings, and other Birds, which would otherwise devour whole fields of it before it could come to its full maturity. These Birds especially Sterlings come in greate flights into the fields, when the Eare beginneth to be full, before it hardneth, and being allured by the Sweetness of the Corne, will sitt upon the stalke, or the Eare it selfe, and so pick at the Corne through the huske at the top of the Eare (for there it is tenderest) and not cease that worke till they have pulled away some of the huske that they
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may come at the Corne, which wil be plucked out so farr as they can come at it. There groweth within the Huske upon the Corne a matter like small threads which appeare out of the top of the Eare like a tuft of haire or Silke.
The Stalke of this Corne groweth to the Height of 6 or 8 foot and more or less according to the Condition of the Ground, and the kind of Seed. The Stalkes of the Virginian Seed grow taller then that of the New England, or the intermediate places: But there is another sort which the Northerne Indians farr up in the Country use that groweth much shorter then the New England Corne, the Stalke of every sort is Joynted like to a Cane and is full of sweete Juice like the Sugar Cane, and a Syrrop as sweete as Sugar Syrrop may be made of it which hath beene often tryed, and Meates Sweetned with it have not beene discerned, from the like sweetness with Sugar, some trialle may make it knowne whether it may be brought into a dry Substance like Sugar, but it is probable it may be done. At every Joynt there are long Leaves like flaggs, and at the very top there is a bunch like Eares as if it were some kind of small Graine, and Blossoms like the Blossoms of Rye upon them but are wholy Barren, and an empty huske conteyning nothing in it.
The time of planting this Corne in that Countrey is any time betweene the middle of March and the beginning of June, but the most usuall time is from the middle of Aprill to the middle of May: The Indians observe in some parts of that Countrey a Rule from the comeing up of a Fish called Aloofes into the Rivers and Brookes for the time to begin their planting, in other parts they observe the Leaves of some trees beginning to put forth :
In the Southerly parts of that Continent as Virginia, and Florida they have their sooner Seasons, and in the Northerly parts, and Upland parts are later, where they use a peculiar kind of that Corne which is called Mowhawkes Corne, which though planted in June wil be Ripe in Season, the Stalkes are shorter than the other Sorts, and the Eares grow neerer the bottom of the Stalke and are generally of divers Colours.
The Manner of planting every kind of this Corne, is in Rowes at equall distance every way about five or Six foote asunder, they open the Earth with a How, takeing away the Superfices three or fower Inches deepe and the breadth of the How which is used, and in the middle of that hole they throw in fower, or five Graines of that Corne, a little distant one from the other, as they may fall and place themselves accidently covering them with Earth. Of these Graines if but two or three grow up it may do well, for some of them are usually plucked up by the Crowes or Birds, or Mouse-Squirrels (a little creature, that doth much hurt in some Fields newly planted). After the Corne is growne up, the length of an hand, it wilbe time to weed about it, which is done by a broad how, which cuts up the Weeds, and looseneth the Earth and this Labour is so often per- formed as the Weeds do grow up in any Quantity.
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When the Stalke beginneth to grow high, they draw (at the second weeding) a little Earth about it, and afterwards, as it groweth higher, and puteth forth the Eare, they draw so much Earth about these Stalkes, that maketh a little hill like hopp hills, using the same manner, as they do hopp grounds with broad Howes. After this they have no other business about it till Harvest, when they gather it, which doth not require great haste, (if it be secured from cattle) when it is gathered it must be as soon as may be stripped from the Huskes, except it be laid very thin, otherwise it will heate and grow mouldy, and sometimes sprout in the huskes: where they have Roome enough to spread the Eares thin, and keepe them dry, they onely pull off the huske, and lay the Eares thin in their Chambers and Garretts, but the Common way is to weave it together in long traices by some parts of the husks left upon the Eare (this worke they call traicing) and these traices they hang upon Staves or other bearers without doors, or within, for it will keepe good and sweete hung in that manner all the Winter after, though it be in all weather without. The Natives commonly thresh it out as they gather it, and dry it well upon Matts in the Sun, and then bestow in holes in the Ground (which are their Barnes) well lined with withered Grass, and with Matts, and then covered with the like and over that covered with Earth, and so it keepes very well till they use it, this was the way of planting used by the Natives, and English also, But now the English have found out an Easier way of raising Quantity of that Corne by the helpe of the Plough, which is performed in this manner. In the planting time there are single furrowes ploughed through the whole field, about Six foote asunder more or less, as they will plant in distance, then they plow such like furrowes Cross at the same distance, and where the Cross furrowes meete there they throw in the Corne as before men- tioned, and cover it with an How, or with Running an other Furrow by the Plow, and that's all till the Weeds begin to overtop the Corne, then they plough over the rest of the field betweene these furrowes where they planted, and so turne in the Weeds, and this is done only a second time about the time of the Summer, they used to begin to hill the Corne with the How, and so the Ground is better loosened then with the How, and the Rootes of the Corne have more Liberty to Spread. So as there is not so much need of that kind of hilling, as is described before, vet they do cast up the Earth about the Corne as well as they can with the Plow, and some will after helpe it a little with the Plow neere the Hill, though others do not regard that way, where any Weeds escape the Plow, a little worke of the how will mend that defect. Where the Ground is not very good, or hath beene long planted and worne out, the Indians used to put two or three of those forementioned Fishes under each place upon which they planted their Corne, or if they had not time before planting, then they would put them afterwards into the Earth by the sides of those Corne hills, and by these meanes had far greater Crops then that ground would otherwise produce, many times more then double, the English have learned this good husbandry of the Indians, and do still use it in
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places, where those Mooses come up in greate plenty, or where they are neere the fishing Stages, haveing there the heads and Gurbage of Codfish in greate plenty at no charge, but the fetching. Some also have tried the Dung of their Cattle well Rotted, and putting a little under every place, or hill, and covered it with earth, and the Corne throwne in upon it, have had very good advantage in their Cropps by it; the Fields thus plowed for this Corne after the Cropp is off, are almost as well fitted for English Corne, specially Summer graine (As Peas or Summer Wheate) as if lying fallow they had an ordinary Summer tilth : The In- dians and some English also (Especially in good ground or where it is well fished as before) at every hill of Corne will plant a kind of Beans with the Corne (they are like those here called French Beans or turky Beans) and in the Vacant places and be- tweene the Hills, they will plant Squashes and pump- ions, loading the Ground with as much as it will beare; The Stalkes of the Corne serveing instead of poles for the Beans to Climb up, which otherwise must have poles to hang upon. Many English also Deserted section of the Boston Post Road at Warren after the last Weeding their ground springle Tur- nep-seed between the hills, and so have after Harvest a good crop of turneps in the same Field.
The Stalke of this Corne cut up in due time (before too much dried) and stacked up or laid up in a Barne drie, are good Winter Fodder for Cattle but they usually leave them upon the Ground, where the Cattle in the Winter will feed upon them, and leave onely the hardest part of the Stalkes next the Ground; which are pulled up by hand before the Land be againe planted or sowed: Those Stalkes which are about the Eare, are also good Fodder for Cattle given them for Change sometimes after Hay. The Indian Women
W. Mass .- I-8
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make Basketts with them, splitting them into narrow parts, weaveing them artificially into severall fashioned Basketts.
This Corne the Indians dress it in severall manner for their food sometimes they boyle it whole, till it swell, and breake, and become tender, and then eate it with their Fish, or Venison in stead of Breade, or onely that without other foode, sometimes they bruise it in a Morter, and then boyle it and make good food of it, bakeing it under the Embers etc, but a very Common way of dressing of it is by parching it among the Ashes, which they do so artificially, by putting it amongst the hott Embers, and continually stirring of it that it wilbe thoroughly parched without any burneing, but be very tender, and turned almost quite the inside outward, which wilbe almost white and flowry, this they sift very cleane from the Ashes and then beate it in their wooden Morters with a long Stone for a pestle, into fine meale, which is a constant food amongst them, both at home, and especially when they travell, being putt up into a Bagg for their Journey, being at all times ready, and may be Eaten either drie, or mixed with water; they find it a strengthening and wholesome diet, and is not apt to breed wormes in their Children or others, this is the food which their souldiers Carry with them in time of Warr. The English sometimes for Novelty will procure some of this to be made by the Indian Women, and adding Milke, or Sugar, and Water, will make it much more pleasant to be taken.
The English make very good Breade of the Meale, or flower of it being Ground in Mills, as other Corne, but to make good bread of it there is a different way of ordering of it, from what is used about the Bread of other Graine, for if it be mixed into stiff past, it will not be good as when it is made into a thinner mixture a little stiffer then the Battar for Pancakes, or puddings, and then baked in a very hott oven, standing all day or all Night therein, therefore some use to bake it in panns like puddings. But the most ordinary way is this, the Oven being very hott they have a great Wooden Dish fastened to a long staff, which may hold the quantity of a Pottle, and that being filled, they empty it on an heape in the Oven, upon the bare floore thereof cleane Swept, and so fill the Oven, and usually lay a second laying upon the top of the first, because the first will otherwise be too thinn for the proportion of a Loafe because it will spread in the oven at the first pouring of it in: if they make it not too thinn it will ly in distance like Loaves, onely in some parts where they touch one another will stick together but are easily parted but some will fill the whole floore of the Oven as one intire Body and must then cut it out in greate peices; In just such manner handled it wilbe (if baked enough) of a good darke yellow Colour, but other- wise white which is not so wholesome nor pleasant, as when well baked of a deeper Colour. There is also very good Bread made of it, by mixing half, or a third parte, more or less of Ry or Wheate-Meale, or Flower amongst it, and then they make it up into Loaves, adding Leaven or yeast to it to make it Rise, which may be also added to that other thinner sorte beforementioned.
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There is also another sort of Bread, which they used to make before they had Mills, which was in this manner, they beate the Corne in Morters of Wood, first watering of it a little that the huskes may come cleane off by the beateing. When it is beaten they sift the Meale out, and then they Winnow the Course parte, Seperating the loose hulls by the Wind, this Course parte which is seperated from the finer Meale, they boyle it till it be thick like batter, and then Cooleing of it, mix so much of the finer Meale, which was sifted out, as might make it into a past, of which they make Loaves, and bake them as other Bread. This kind of Bread is very well tasted and wholesome, but the best sort of Food which the English make of this Corne is that they call Sampe, which is made in this manner. They first Water the Corne, if with Colde Water a little longer, if with Water a little warmed a shorter time about halfe an hower more or less, as they find it needfull, according to the driness of the Corne, then they either beate it in a Morter as beforementioned but not so small, as for that use of makeing bread of it, but to be about the Biggness of Rice, though some will be a little smaller, and some a little greater, or Grind it gross as neere as they can about the biggness of Rice in handmills or other Mills, out of which they sift the Flower, or Meale very cleane (for whether they beate it or Grinde it there wilbe some little Quantity of Meale amongst it) then they winnow it in the wind, and so seperate the hulls from the rest this is to be boyled or Stued with a gentle Fire, till it be tender, of a fitt consistence, as of Rice so boyled, into which if Milke, or butter be put either with Sugar or without, it is a food very pleasant and wholesome, being easy of Digestion, and is of a nature Divertical and Clensing and hath no Quality of binding the Body, as the Herball supposeth, but rather to keepe it in a fitt temperature, but it must be observed, that it be very well boyled, the longer the better, some will let it be stuing the whole day : after it is Cold it groweth thicker, and it is Eaten con- monly by mixing a good Quantity of Milke amongst it. This was the most common diet of the planters, at the first beginning of planting in these parts and is still in use amongst them, and may be taken as well in Sickness as in health, even in feavers and other acute Diseases. A learned Physician that not long since lived in London (Doctor Wilson) had every yeare some Quantity brought over ready beaten, and fitt to be boyled, and did order it to such Patients as he saw cause for it. It was observed that at the beginnings of the Plantations, where this foode was most in use it was very rare that any were troubled with the Stone, and amongst the Indians that Eate no other sorte of Corne but that, The English that have beene most acquainted with them, have beene informed by them, that the disease of the stone is very seldome knowne amongst them. It is accounted also a good meanes against the Scurvie.
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