On Display in the State Library - Corn, Squash, and Beans

November is Native American Heritage Month, and in our monthly display case, we’re showcasing a few 18th and 19th-century agricultural books from our Special Collections holdings that give information about the three crops that comprise the Three Sisters. These three crops – squash, corn (maize), and beans – have been cultivated together by Indigenous communities for centuries. When English settlers arrived on Native American land in the 1600s, they learned of this planting regimen from the Indigenous people already living there, which helped them to survive in their new home.

Three Sisters planting is a type of companion planting where each crop sustains the others. The corn stalks provide a tall stake for beans to climb so they don’t get snarled in squash vines, and the beans in turn provide extra support for the stalks. Beans also provide nutrients in their roots that fertilizes soil, and squash leaves provide shade and retain moisture. And in addition to this symbiotic relationship, the vegetables also complement each other and add to a nutritious diet. Squash, beans, and corn are a major component of Native American dishes, and though the origins of Three Sisters planting is attributed to the Iroquois, many Native American communities throughout North America employed it, including the Wampanoag and the Nipmuc here in the northeast. You can read more about Three Sisters planting on these sites. And from our own collection, you can read The Nipmuc Story of the Three Sisters (story 8) in Stories and Poems for Northeastern Native Tribal Families.

Though we don’t have any historical Indigenous sources in our collection, we have selected some 18th and 19th century agricultural books that help us to share information about the three crops of the Three Sisters. We are displaying the following sources:

• The New American Gardener: Containing Practical Directions on the Culture of Fruits and Vegetables; Including Landscape and Ornamental Gardening, Grape-Vines, Silk, Strawberries by Thomas Green Fessenden, and published by J.B. Russell in Boston in 1828. The book is displayed open to the entry on squash and includes a note that “the squash is applicable to all the uses of the pumpkin, and for many purposes, is superior to that vegetable.” Winter squash is a more mature squash, and its hardened rind means that it can be stored and consumed well into the colder months. This was especially useful for Indigenous communities and settlers in the northeast, who after a bountiful harvest, would continue to have squash in their diet throughout the winter. 

• The Cultivator's Almanac, and Cabinet of Agricultural Knowledge, for the year 1841 compiled by William Buckminster and published in Boston by H.B. Williams in 1841; and A Treatise on Cobbett’s Corn: Containing Instructions for Propagating and Cultivating the Plant, and for Harvesting and Preserving the Crop by William Cobbett and published in London by Mills, Jowett, and Mills in 1828. These two sources are displayed to highlight corn: Cobbett’s Corn shows an illustration of a corn stalk (shown above), and The Cultivator’s Almanac is opened to the November page, writing that “the harvesting of corn is pretty work, and much of it may be done by moonlight; or in cold weather, by candle light. When placed in a convenient floor way, a number of hands will sit very happily for three hours in an evening, and separate the corn from the husks.” The almanac also includes a notation on November’s Thanksgiving holiday, writing that “this festival usually happens on the last week in this month, and all the fall work should be finished before its arrival.” Even among these three important crops, corn stands above. It's a versatile vegetable that could be eaten raw, roasted, baked into other foods, or dried and then ground into cornmeal. Its a lynchpin of the Native American diet, and consequently, it became a key component of the English settlers' diet when they arrived in North America, too. 

• The New-England Farmer or Georgical Dictionary: Containing a Compendious Account of the Ways and Methods in Which the Important Art of Husbandry, in All Its Various Branches, Is, or May Be, Practised, to the Greatest Advantage, in This Country by Samuel Deane and published by Isaiah Thomas in Worcester in 1797. This dictionary is displayed open to the section on beans, and it describes the different varieties of beans found in New England, along with the notation that "there is no danger of their being hurt by a small degree of frost, should it happen to come early." When planting the Three Sisters crops, it was recommended that the corn is planted first and then the beans two to three weeks later.

Visit the library through December 1 to see these agricultural sources on display. And if you're looking to get outside after your Thanksgiving meal (which may include squash, beans, and/or corn!) you can explore the Three Sisters Trail in Milford! 

Elizabeth Roscio

Preservation Librarian