Page:The first and last journeys of Thoreau - lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts 2.djvu/53

 likewise a lobe-leafed Lonicera, a Symphoricarpus, and the Scirpus of the larch swamp.

A wild rice was formerly much used here by the Indians. In the Transactions of the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society for 1852 (p. 286), Joseph Bowron says of this wild rice: &quot;The squaws have a double object in thus tying the straws together; one is to prevent the waving of the heads together by the action of the wind, and thus threshing out the grain; and the other to prevent the straws from settling down into the water when they have become fully ripe.&quot; After collecting, they kiln-dry it enough to cook it, and beat it to get the husks off. In spring &quot;they mix some grained sugar with it, to carry with them as their principal supply of food. They then eat it without further cooking. I have used it, and consider it far preferable to the southern rice for soups or boiled to eat with molasses or butter. When the Indians wish to grow it in some favorable place, they gather some of it when it is fully ripe, and scatter it in the water, when it grows without any further trouble.&quot;