The size of a garden was determined chiefly by the industry of the family that owned it, and by the number of mouths that must be fed.
When I was six years old, there were, I think, ten in my father’s family, of whom my two grandmothers, my mother and her three sisters, made six. I have said that my mother and her three sisters were wives of Small Ankle, my father. It was this year that my mother and Corn Sucker died, however.
My father’s wives and my two grandmothers, all industrious women, added each year to the area of our field; for our family was growing. At the time our garden reached its maximum size, there were seven boys in the family; three of these died young, but four grew up and brought wives to live in our earth lodge.
Na´xu and Nu´cami
In our big garden at Like-a-fishhook village, nine rows of corn, running lengthwise with the field, made one na´xu, or Indian acre, as we usually translate it. There were ten of these na´xus, or Indian acres, in the garden.
Figure 8
Some families of our village counted eight rows of corn to one na´xu, others counted ten rows.
The rows of the na´xus always ran the length of the garden; and if the field curved, as it sometimes did around a bend of the river, or other irregularity, the rows curved with it.