throw out a booShefore wandering, hostile, and
savage tribes, to display their munificence, and
effect temporary interests» should have been
continued to the present day, is only* to be accounted
for, from the accumulated duties,, perpetually
advancing jurisdiction, and still imperfectly
organized state of that sub-department o.f
the government, which, exercises its, in some^e-
spects, anomalous administrative functions, un*-.
der the name of the Ind/io/ft burecm-. So fafus the
Iroquois.- are affected, by the policy adverted to,,
their interests demand ah immediate consideration
of the subject on enlarged principles. It
behooves them to meditate whether, as a people,
now semi-civilized, and exercising, in their internal
polity, the powers of an independent government,
some more beneficial appropriation
of the fund could not be made«, Perhaps nothing
would better serve to advance and exalt them,
as a people, and the application of these annuities
to constitute a confederate schóól fund, under
some-compact or arrangement with the state,
by which the latter should stipulate- to extend
the frame-work of the common school system
over their reservations.
Horticulture, to some extent, and in a limited
sense» was always an incident to the hunter
state among these tribes, so far, at least, as we
are acquainted with their history. They brought
the zea maize with them, we;JW®t Concede, on
their early migration to the banks of the Mohawk,
and the Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga and
15
Seneca'hhsihs ; f°r this grain i#conceded, on all
hands, to be a tropical, or at least a southern
plant, and if so, it reveals the general course of
their migration. It is of indigenous origin, and
was not known in Europe before the discovery.
We learned the mode of Cultivation from them,
and not they1 from us. This grain became the
basis of their, fixity of population, in the 14th or
15th centuries, and capacity to undertake military
^eafterprises, 1 It was certainly cultivated in
forge fields, in their Chief -locations, and gave
them a title to agriculturists and it is equally
certain that they had à kind of bean, perhaps
the same Called y the early Spaniards,
and some specieS of mcurbita. These were cultivated
in gardens. ■
The tables will show a general and considéra*-
ble advance, or any probable assumed basis of
the cultivation of corn. We cannot consider
this specîès^pf cultivation alone, ho^everi as any
characterisÉc evidence of advance; in agriculture,
while the more general introduction of it,
and the harvesting of large fields of it, by separate
families, is undoubtedly to be considered so.
Taking the item of corn as the test, another and
an important result will bè perceived. In proportion
as the cereals are cultivated, the ave%
rage quantity of corn is diminished ; and these
are the very cases where, at the same time, the
degree of civilization is most apparent in other
things.
The condition of herdsmen is deemed bytheo