ANCIENT GARDEN BEDS OF MICHIGAN.

(Read before the Detroit Scientific Association, December, 1876.)

BY BELA HUBBARD.

In a paper read before this Association last winter I alluded to a class of works of the Mound-Builders existing in Michigan, of unknown age and origin, and which have received the name of "Garden-Beds."

An unusual importance attaches to these remains of a lost race, from the fact that they have been almost entirely overlooked by archæologists, and that of those which were so numerous and prominent forty, or even thirty years ago, nearly every trace has disappeared. For any knowledge beyond the scanty details hitherto recorded we are forced to rely upon the recollections of the "oldest inhabitants." We know how uncertain this reliance often is, and were it otherwise, we cannot but recognize the rapidity with which we are losing our hold of this kind of testimony, and the very brief period at which it must cease altogether.

THE EARLIEST MENTION OF THESE RELICS,

which, I find, is by Haven, in his "Archæology of the United States." It is the Report of Verandrier, who, with several French associates, explored this region before 1748. He found in the western wilderness "large tracts free from wood, many of which are everywhere covered with furrows, as if they had formerly been plowed and sown."

Schoolcraft was the first to give to the world any accurate and systematic account of these "furrows." Indeed, he is the only author of note who honors this interesting class of the works of the

Mound-Builders with more than the most meagre mention. Observations were made by him as early as 1827. He gives figures of two kinds of beds, and he records the fact, that "the garden beds, and not the mounds, form the most prominent, and, by far, the most striking and characteristic antiquarian monuments of this district of country."

Another writer of early date, still resident of our State, John T. Blois, published, in 1839, in his "Gazeteer of Michigan," a detailed description, with a diagram, of one kind of the beds.

No mention is made of these remains by Priest or by Baldwin. Foster devotes to them less than a single page of his voluminous work, and only says, in effect, that "they certainly indicate a methodical cultivation, which was not practiced by the Red man."

Dr. Lapham describes a few of this kind of remains which were found upon the western shore of Lake Michigan, as "consisting of low parallel ridges, as if corn had been planted in drills. They average four feet in width, and twenty-five of them have been counted in the space of one hundred feet."

Yet these relics constitute a unique feature in the antiquities of our country. They are of especial interest to us, from the fact that they were not only the most prominent of our antiquities, but, with the exception referred to in Wisconsin, they are confined to our State.

Some investigations, by no means thorough, enable me to define more accurately and fully than has been heretofore done the different kinds of these beds, which I shall attempt to classify, according to the most reliable information obtained. But I must first define

THEIR SITUATION, EXTENT AND CHARACTER.

The so-called "Garden Beds" were found in the valleys of the St. Joseph and Grand Rivers, where they occupied the most fertile of the prairie land and burr-oak plains, principally in the counties of St. Joseph, Cass and Kalamazoo.

They consist of raised patches of ground, separated by sunken paths, and were generally arranged in plats or blocks of parallel beds. These varied in dimensions, being from five to sixteen feet in width, in length from twelve to more than one hundred feet, and in height six to eighteen inches.

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The tough sod of the prairie had preserved very sharply all the outlines. According to the universal testimony, these beds were laid out and fashioned with a skill, order and symmetry which distinguished them from the ordinary operations of agriculture, and were combined with some peculiar features that belong to no recognized system of horticultural art.

In the midst of diversity, sufficient uniformity is discoverable to enable me to group the beds and gardens, as in the following

CLASSIFICATIONS:

1. Wide convex beds, in parallel rows, without paths, composing independent plats. (Width of beds 12 feet, paths none, length 74 to 115 feet.) Fig. 1.

2. Wide convex beds, in parallel rows, separated by paths of same width, in independent plats. (Width of bed 12 to 16 feet; paths same; length, 74 to 132 feet.) Fig. 2.

3. Wide and parallel beds, separated by narrow paths, arranged in a series of plats longitudinal to each other. (Width of beds 14 feet; paths, 2 feet; length, 100 feet.) Fig. 3.

4. Long and narrow beds, separated by narrower paths and arranged in a series of longitudinal plats, each plat divided from the next by semi-circular heads. (Width of beds 5 feet; paths, 13 feet; length, 100 feet; height, 18 inches). Fig. 4. 5. Parallel beds, arranged in plats similar to class 4, but divided by circular heads. (Width of beds, 6 feet; paths, 4 feet; length, 12 to 40 feet; height, 18 inches). Fig. 5.

6. Parallel beds, of varying widths and lengths, separated by narrow paths, and arranged in plats of two or more at right angles N. and S., E. and W., to the plats adjacent). Width of beds, 5 to 14 feet; paths, 1 to 2 feet; length, 12 to 30 feet; height, 8 inches.) Figures a, b, and c, are varieties. Fig. 6. 7. Parallel beds, of uniform width and length, with narrow paths, arranged in plats or blocks, and single beds, at varying angles. (Width of beds, 6 ft; paths, 2 feet; length, about 30 feet; height, 10 to 12 inches.) Fig. 7.

8. Wheel-shaped plats, consisting of a circular bed, with beds of

uniform shape and size radiating therefrom, all separated by narrow paths. (Width of beds, 6 to 20 feet; paths, 1 foot length, 14 to 20 feet.) Fig. 8.