marily made by the local smith. A few hoes and mattocks,
scythes, reaping hooks, spades and wooden plows with iron points and
shares complete the list. The entire supply of tools for an average
sized farm could have been hauled in one load on one of their
two-wheeled carts.

CROPS GROWN

The chief grains of northern Europe were wheat, rye, oats, barley,
and buckwheat. The common grasses, clover and turnips, were raised
for forage. It should be noted that all of these crops were
broad-cast seeded, none required row planting or intertillage.

A few American products had been brought to England prior to the
settlement at Jamestown. They apparently came by the way of Asia.
Maize was first called Turkey wheat. The great American bird was
named Turkey. Thomas Tusser in 1573 in his "Five Hundred Pointes of
Good Husbandrie" enumerates the meats suitable for a Christmas dinner
with the following verse:

"Beef, mutton and pork.
Shred pies of the best
Pig, veal, goose and capon
And Turkey well drest."

No earlier mention of anything strictly American in English
literature has come to light.

INDIAN AGRICULTURE

Let us turn now and take a look at the farming accomplishments of the
American Indians. The oft repeated statement that the Indians lived
mainly by hunting and fishing so far as it pertains to the Virginia
tribes is far from the truth.

The bitter struggles between the white men and the Indians during
the colonial period created animosities and prejudices which have
overshadowed the beneficial contributions the red men have made to
civilization. As plant breeders, the American Indians rank with the
most skillful of the world. Take for instance, maize or Indian corn.
There is nothing closely comparable to it known to botanists. It has
been domesticated so long that its wild prototype is unknown. Maize,
now, could not exist anywhere in the world without the aid of man.
The Indians had all the varieties that are now known, such as dent,
flint, sweet, early, late, pop, and other special sorts which are no
longer grown. They had developed varieties that matured all the way
from the tropics to the St. Lawrence River in Canada.

The Indians also practiced a mixed culture such as corn, beans, and
squashes all in the same hill; they had created a large number of
varieties of beans (_Phaseolus genus_): the white, red, black, and
spotted sorts now so commonly grown, and many others.

INDIAN TILLAG