PRODUCTS
Possessed of the foremost American cereal, maize, at least one variety of legume, and the cotton plant, as well as species of Cucurbitaceæ and other plants, the agriculture of the Pimas was well beyond the initial stages before the arrival of the whites.[1]
Cereals
The Pimas distinguished half a dozen varieties of maize, to which they have now added the large corn brought by the Americans. The first crop is planted in April and the second in July, the first being gathered in June and July and the second in October. When gathering corn the women lay aside the best ears for seed; they are stuck in pairs on sticks and carried in the hand. Wheat is now the principal crop, and when a wet season insures sufficient water several million pounds are raised. It is sowed in December and reaped with hand sickles in June. Of the several varieties "Sonora" and "Australian" are favorites. One called skaofkutco was raised before Kâʼmâl tkâk's father was born. Wheat is ground for the Pimas at the Government mill at Sacaton (pl. I), but a great deal of it is yet parched and ground on the metates to be made into pinole.
There have been at least half a dozen trading stores on the Gila River reservation for a number of years whose principal trade has been in wheat. The traders have naturally encouraged the growing of this cereal as much as possible and assisted in the introduction of suitable varieties. They have also profited in a legitimate way from the contracts awarded by the Government in times of famine for the support of the natives.
- ↑ "In the year 1858, the first year of the Overland Mail Line, the surplus crop of wheat was 100,000 pounds, which was purchased by the company; also a large quantity of beans called taperis, and a vast quantity of pumpkins, squashes, and melons. In 1859 Mr St John was sent among them as a special agent with a supply of seeds and some agricultural implements. That year they sold 250,000 pounds of wheat and a large supply of melons, pumpkins, and beans. In 1860 they sold 400,000 pounds of wheat—all the Mail Company would purchase. They had more, and furnished the Government and private teamsters all that was necessary for transportation from Fort Yuma to Tucson. Beyond this they had no market, except for about 40,000 pounds of wheat which Mr White purchased for the supply of Fort Breckenridge. In 1861 they sold to Mr White 300,000 pounds of wheat, 50,000 pounds of corn, 20,000 pounds of beans, and a large amount of dried and fresh pumpkins, which was all intended for the support of the California Column. The greater part of this crop was destroyed or given back to the Indians by the Texans under the guerrilla, Hunter, who arrived at the Pimo villages that year, robbed Mr White of his property, and took him prisoner in their flight to the Rio Grande. The Pimos sold, during the same year, 600 chickens and a large amount of other stuff, showing a gradual increase of production under the encouragement of an increased demand. In 1862 they sold to the Government over a million pounds of wheat, included in which was a portion of the previous year's crop, returned to them by the Texans. They furnished pinole, chickens, green peas, green corn, pumpkins, and melons for the entire California Column, subsisting nearly a thousand men for many months." (J.R. Browne, Adventures in the Apache Country, 110.) Browne's statements about the Pimas, though not grossly inaccurate, are not generally reliable, but as he was intimately acquainted with A.M. White, with whom he traveled from California, it is probable that the above estimates are as nearly correct as circumstances permitted.
