It is not to be inferred that “cultivation” implies all that is now meant by the term; the Indian seems merely to have worked the hill in which his corn was planted and not the whole surface of the field, a shallow hole being scooped out in which the grain was dropped, and as the stalk became larger the dirt was heaped up around it. The remains of many “Indian old fields” in various parts of the country show this, there being no long ridges as in cornfields of the present day, but only a great number of these detached hills. The great scarcity of implements suitable for such work argues nothing, for in most parts of the country stone easily worked and adapted to the purpose is unobtainable.
There are a few flint deposits found in southern Illinois in which the material occurs in nodules that can be made with even less work than a piece of wood into suitable implements; and in the country which may be considered as belonging to this archeologic district the flint hoes and spades are tolerably abundant. In other portions of the country, wood, the shoulder blades of large animals, and musselshells perforated for attachment to a handle, were formerly used; the shells are frequently found, but the other materials have long since disappeared.
Early observations on the industries of the aborigines are significant. Thus, according to De Forest, the Connecticut Indians used spades rudely constructed of wood, or of a large shell fastened to a wooden handle;[122] and Palmer[123] figures a hoe made of horn, 14 by 5 by one-fourth inches, in a wooden handle 5 feet long, which is split and slipped over the smaller end; such, with others of wood and stone, were used among the Utah Indians before iron was introduced. Dawson holds that they were probably prepared in large numbers for the planting time, when the whole tribe mustered to till the fields, and that when the work was over they were gathered and hidden in some safe place until the next season.[124] This may have been the case to some extent, but the specimens found in these hiding places seldom have marks of use, and it is more probable that they were the property either of persons living at a distance or of an individual manufacturer in some particular village, being thus concealed for safe-keeping until there was a demand for them or, perhaps, to await a convenient time for transportation. A sedentary tribe would have no more reason for hiding this than any other kind of property.
Fig. 169.—Chipped spade with pointed ends.
Fig. 170.—Chipped spade with rounded ends.
The chipped implements known as spades are frequently found buried in large numbers. Two caches were disclosed by high water in 1884, near Caseyville, Kentucky, containing, respectively, 57 and 75 specimens from 6 to 13 inches long.
The most common form is that having an oval or elliptical outline, with the ends either coming to a point or rounded. Long use of those having pointed ends would wear them off until they approached the others in form; but so many of both patterns show no evidence of use that this distinction must be considered intentional. The principal varieties are as follows:
A. Those with pointed ends. [Figure 169] represents a typical specimen of yellow flint, from Union county, Illinois.