Tea and coffee were long unknown,
and when introduced they were likely to be scorned by the men as
"slops" good enough perhaps for women and children. Vegetables
the settlers grew in the garden plot which ordinarily adjoined
the house, and thrifty families had also a "truck patch" in which
they raised pumpkins, squashes, potatoes, beans, melons, and corn
for "roasting ears." The forests yielded game, as well as fruits
and wild grapes, and honey for sweetening.
The first quality for which the life of the frontier called was
untiring industry. It was possible, of course, to eke out an
existence by hunting, fishing, petty trading, and garnering the
fruits which Nature supplied without man's assistance. And many
pioneers in whom the roving instinct was strong went on from year
to year in this hand-to-mouth fashion. But the settler who
expected to be a real home-builder, to gain some measure of
wealth, to give his children a larger opportunity in life, must
be prepared to work, to plan, to economize, and to sacrifice. The
forests had to be felled; the great logs had to be rolled
together and burned; crops of maize, tobacco, oats, and cane
needed to be planted, cultivated, and harvested; live-stock to be
housed and fed; fences and barns to be built; pork, beef, grain,
whiskey, and other products to be prepared for market, and
perhaps carried scores of miles to a place of shipment.
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