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7 Corn from Fort Michilimackinac, a.d. 1770–1780 Leonard W. Blake and Hugh C. Cutler Missouri Botanical Garden (Written in 1968) Leonard Blake’s Comments, 1999 The corn described in this report was received from Dr. James Brown, then of Michigan State University, who was conducting excavations at the site. The samples were recovered from the university’s 1967 excavations at the rear of the houses used historically by French inhabitants. Corn that was shipped in to Fort Michilimackinac almost invariably consisted of shelled corn, that is, kernels stripped off the cob, for ease in transport. The recovery of charred corn kernels in and around the houses was very common. These 1967 excavations were one of the very few instances in which cobs were recovered and thus are of unusual interest. Fort Michilimackinac was and still is near the northern limit of corn agriculture. Cartier found Indians growing corn at the present site of Montreal in 1535 (Tooker 1964:3). This is at about the same latitude as the Straits of Mackinac. Corn was grown still farther to the north along the Missouri River: Vérendrye found the Mandan villages growing large crops of corn during the eighteenth century in what is now North Dakota (Will and Hyde 1968:60). Present-day farmers grow corn mostly for silage in that area and few attempt to produce mature ears. The principal limiting factors in growing corn in high latitudes are summer temperatures and the length of the frost-free growing season. The last was of less importance to the Indians because of their practice of soaking the kernels before planting to hasten sprouting and because they harvested as soon as the kernels were firm but not necessarily dry (Kinietz 1965:16). The growing of corn near the straits and elsewhere in the somewhat unfavorable environment of the Upper Great Lakes was probably stimulated by the scattering of the Hurons and Neutrals by the attacks of the Iroquois around the middle of the seventeenth century. The Hurons were heavily dependent on corn. They were capable corn farmers and had varieties well adapted to a northern climate. These things are repeatedly mentioned in the early historic accounts dating back to Champlain’s visit of 1615 (Tooker 1964:60) and are confirmed by archaeological excavations for even earlier dates. The corn cob samples recovered in Michigan State University’s 1967 archaeological excavations are from the rear of the houses of French inhabitants of a.d. 1770 to 1780. They are essentially a pure form of a race of corn variously called Northern or Northeastern Flint. This was the dominant kind of corn grown from southern Canada, New England, and New York across the lake states to the plains in late prehistoric and historic times until after 1850. In this period it appeared mixed with other kinds of corn on the western part of its range on the plains and to the south. This hardy and early maturing race is one of the ancestors of our present corn belt corns. The ears are described by Brown and Anderson (1947:2) as “characteristically long and slender with 8 to 10 rows of wide, crescent-shaped kernels. The cob is strong and proportionately large, particularly toward the base, and the shank or ear-stalk is thick and well developed. Frequently the base is noticeably larger than the rest of the ear.” Although there are a few large cobs in the sample, the median size is below that of collections of similar corn from other locations. It is known that the soil at Fort Michilimackinac is poor and sandy, but this is not believed to be the principal cause of the substandard cobs. Peter Pond (1900:328), a Connecticut Yankee, who stopped several times at the fort in the period, wrote, “The Land about Macinac is Vary Baran—a Mear Sand Bank—but the Gareson By Manure Have Good Potaters and Sum Vegetables.” Peasants in France and their eighteenth-century descendants in Canada and the Mississippi Valley had a reputation for skill and care in cultivation of their kitchen gardens. Such people would be almost certain to offset the effect of poor soil to the extent that they were able by regularly fertilizing with compost, kitchen waste, and animal manure, when available. Without fertilization, it is doubtful that corn could have been grown at all. The climate of the straits region is not a favorable one for corn agriculture, yet carbonized corn kernels were found in...

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