I wish you might have seen how different to that which is the custom in
Scrooby, was our farming done on the first season after we came ashore
from the _Mayflower_. Because of having no working cattle with which to
plough, the men were forced to dig up the ground with spades, and weary
labor it was. Those of our people who were well enough to remain in
the field, planted nearly twenty-six acres, six of which were sown with
barley and peas, while the remainder was given over to Indian corn.
Squanto showed us how this last should be done, and, strange as it may
seem to you in England, he used fish with which to enrich the land,
putting three small ones in each hill.
You must know that all of us children, and the women, work at the
planting of this corn, for it is the only kind of food to be had which
can be kept throughout the year without danger of being spoiled, and
when one grows weary with the task, it is only needed to bring to mind
our hunger when we first came ashore.
[Illustration]
Perhaps you may wonder where we got so much of the corn for seed. It
has all come from the Indians in one way or another. Some of it Squanto
brought from Massasoit's people; but a goodly portion has been found on
the graves, of which there are very many near our village.
As to planting barley and peas, Squanto knew nothing; therefore the
work was done somewhat as it would have been done at home, except
that the land was encumbered with rocks and trees, and we were much
perplexed by lack of tools.
The seed was finally put into the ground, but even when the task
had been performed to the best of our ability, it was an odd looking
farm to those who had seen the fair fields of England. Large rocks
stood here and there, while many stumps of trees yet remained, for
our fathers had not been able to clear the land entirely. We shall
have much work at harvest, in gathering the crops from amid all these
unsightly things.