CHAPTER VIII.
_Of the Agriculture, or Manner of cultivating, ordering, and manufacturing the Commodities that are proper Articles of Commerce. Of the Culture of_ Maiz, Rice, _and other Fruits of the Country. Of the_ Silk-worm.
In order to give an account of the several sorts of plants cultivated in Louisiana, I begin with Maiz, as being the most useful grain, seeing it is the principal food of the people of America, and that the French found it cultivated by the Indians.
Maiz, which in France we call Turkey corn, (and we Indian-corn) is a grain of the size of a pea; there is of it as large as our sugar-pea: it grows on a sort of husks, (Quenouille) in ascending rows: some of these husks have to the {164} number of seven hundred grains upon them, and I have counted even to a greater number. This husk may be about two inches thick, by seven or eight inches and upwards in length: it is wrapped up in several covers or thin leaves, which screen it from the avidity of birds. Its foot or stalk is often of the same size: it has leaves about two inches and upwards broad, by two feet and a half long, which are chanelled, or formed like gutters, by which they collect the dew which dissolves at sun-rising, and trickles down to the stalk, sometimes in such plenty, as to wet the earth around them for the breadth of six or seven inches. Its flower is on the top of the stalk, which is sometimes eight feet high. We ordinarily find five or six ears on each stalk, and in order to procure a greater crop, the part of the stalk above the ears ought to be cut away.
For sowing the Maiz in a field already cleared and prepared, holes are made four feet asunder every way, observing to make the rows as straight as may be, in order to weed them the easier: into every hole five or six grains are put, which are previously to be steeped for twenty-four hours at least, to make them rise or shoot the quicker, and to prevent the fox and birds from eating such quantities of them: by day there are people to guard them against birds; by night fires are made at proper distances to frighten away the fox, who would otherwise turn up the ground, and eat the corn of all the rows, one after another, without omitting one, till he has his fill, and is therefore the most pernicious animal to this corn. The corn, as soon as shot out of the earth, is weeded: when it mounts up, and its stalks are an inch big, it is hilled, to secure it against the wind. This grain produces enough for two negroes to make fifty barrels, each weighing an hundred and fifty pounds.
Such as begin a plantation in woods, thick set with cane, have an advantage in the Maiz, that makes amends for the labour of clearing the ground; a labour always more fatiguing than cultivating a spot already cleared. The advantage is this: they begin with cutting down the canes for a great extent of ground; the trees they peel two feet high quite round: this operation is performed in the beginning of March, as then the sap is in motion in that country: about fifteen days after, the canes, {165} being dry, are set on fire: the sap of the trees are thereby made to descend, and the branches are burnt, which kills the trees.
On the following day they sow the corn in the manner I have just shewn: the roots of the cane, which are not quite dead, shoot fresh canes, which are very tender and brittle; and as no other weeds grow in the field that year, it is easy to be weeded of these canes, and as much corn again may be made, as in a field already cultivated.
This grain they eat in many different ways; the most common way is to make it into Sagamity, which is a kind of gruel made with water, or strong broth. They bake bread of it like cakes (by baking it over the fire on an iron plate, or on a board before the fire,) which is much better than what they bake in the oven, at least for present use; but you must make it every day; and even then it is too heavy to soak in soup of any kind. They likewise make Parched Meal [Footnote: See Book III, Chap. I.] of it, which is a dish of the natives, as well as the Cooedlou, or bread mixt with beans. The ears of corn roasted are likewise a peculiar dish of theirs; and the small corn dressed in that manner is as agreeable to us as to them. A light and black earth agrees much better with the Maiz than a strong and rich one.
The Parched Meal is the best preparation of this corn; the French like it extremely well, no less than the Indians themselves: I can affirm that it is a very good food, and at the same time the best sort of provision that can be carried on a journey, because it is refreshing and extremely nourishing.
As for the small Indian corn, you may see an account of it in the first chapter of the third Book; where you will likewise find an account of the way of sowing wheat, which if you do not observe, you may as well sow none.
Rice is sown in a soil well laboured, either by the plough or hoe, and in winter, that it may be sowed before the time of the inundation. It is sown in furrows of the breadth of a hoe: when shot, and three or four inches high, they let water into the furrows, but in a small quantity, in proportion as it grows, and then give water in greater plenty.
{166} The ear of this grain nearly resembles that of oats; its grains are fastened to a beard, and its chaff is very rough, and full of those fine and hard beards: the bran adheres not to the grain, as that of the corn of France; it consists of two lobes, which easily separate and loosen, and are therefore readily cleaned and broke off.
They eat their rice as they do in France, but boiled much thicker, and with much less cookery, although it is not inferior in goodness to ours: they only wash it in warm water, taken out of the same pot you are to boil it in, then throw it in all at once, and boil it till it bursts, and so it is dressed without any further trouble. They make bread of it that is very white and of a good relish; but they have tried in vain to make any that will soak in soup.
The culture of the Water-melon is simple enough. They choose for the purpose a light soil, as that of a rising ground, well exposed: they make holes in the earth, from two and a half to three feet in diameter, and distant from each other fifteen feet every way, in each of which holes they put five or six seeds. When the seeds are come up, and the young plants have struck out five or six leaves, the four most thriving plants are pitched upon, and the others plucked up to prevent their starving each other, when too numerous. It is only at that time that they have the trouble of watering them, nature alone performing the rest, and bringing them to maturity; which is known by the green rind beginning to change colour. There is no occasion to cut or prune them. The other species of melons are cultivated in the same manner, only that between the holes the distance is but five or six feet.
All sorts of garden plants and greens thrive extremely well in Louisiana, and grow in much greater abundance than in France: the climate is warmer, and the soil much better. However, it is to be observed, that onions and other bulbous plants answer not in the low lands, without a great deal of pains and labour; whereas in the high grounds they grow very large and of a fine flavour.
The inhabitants of Louisiana may very easily make Silk, having mulberries ready at hand, which grow naturally in the {167} high lands, and plantations of them may be easily made. The leaves of the natural mulberries of Louisiana are what the silk-worms are very fond of; I mean the more common mulberries with a large leaf, but tender, and the fruit of the colour of Burgundy wine. The province produces also the White Mulberry, which has the same quality with the red.
I shall next relate some experiments that have been made on this subject, by people who were acquainted with it. Madam Hubert, a native of Provence, where they make a great deal of silk, which she understood the management of, was desirous of trying whether they could raise silk-worms with the mulberry leaves of this province, and what sort of silk they would afford. The first of her experiments was, to give some large silk-worms a parcel of the leaves of the Red Mulberry, and another parcel of the White Mulberry both upon the same frame. She observed the worms went over the leaves of both sorts, without shewing any greater liking to the one than to the other: then she put to the other two sorts of leaves some of the leaves of the White-sweet or Sugar-Mulberry, and she found that the worms left the other sorts to go to these, and that they preferred them to the leaves of the common Red and White Mulberry. [Footnote: See an account of these different sorts of Mulberry, in the notes at the end of this Volume.]
The second experiment of Madam Hubert was, to raise and feed some silk-worms separately. To some she gave the leaves of the common White Mulberry, and to others the leaves of the White Sugar-Mulberry; in order to see the difference of the silk from the difference of their food. Moreover, she raised and fed some of the native silk-worms of the country, which were taken very young from the mulberry-trees; but she observed that these last were very flighty, and did nothing but run up and down, their nature being, without doubt, to live upon trees: she then changed their place, that they might not mix with the other worms that came from France, and gave them little branches with the leaves on them, which made them a little more settled.
{168} This industrious lady waited till the cocoons were perfectly made, in order to observe the difference between them in unwinding the silk; the success of which, and of all her other experiments, she was so good as to give me a particular account of. When the cocoons were ready to be wound, she took care of them herself, and found that the wild worms yielded less silk than those from France; for although they were of a larger size, they were not so well furnished with silk, which proceeded, no doubt, from their not being sufficiently nourished, by their running incessantly up and down; and accordingly she observed that they were but meagre; but notwithstanding, their silk was strong and thick, though coarse.
Those who were fed with the leaves of the Red Mulberry made cocoons well furnished with silk; which was stronger and finer than that of France. Those that were fed upon the leaves of the common White Mulberry, had the same silk with those that were fed on the leaves of the Red Mulberry. The fourth sort, again, that had been fed with the leaves of the White Sugar-Mulberry, had but little silk; it was indeed as fine as the preceding, but it was so weak and so brittle, that it was with great difficulty they could wind it.
These are the experiments of this lady on silk-worms, which every one may make his own uses of, in order to have the sorts of silk, mulberries, or worms, that are most suitable to his purpose, and most likely to turn to his account: which we are very glad of this opportunity to inform them of, that they may see how much society owes to those persons who take care to study nature, in order to promote industry and public utility.