The household utensils were of the simplest kind. Brooms and brushes were made of corn husks. Corn was shelled by hand and was then either carried in a bag slung over a horse's back to the nearest mill, perhaps fifteen miles away, or was pounded in a wooden hominy mortar with a wooden pestle, or ground in a hand mill. Chickens and game were roasted by hanging them with leather strings before the open fire. Cooking stoves were unknown, and all cooking was done in a "Dutch oven," on the hearth, or in a clay "out oven" built, as its name implies, out of doors. [Illustration: Corn-husk broom [1]] [Illustration: Kitchen utensils [1]] [Footnote 1: From originals in the National Museum, Washington.] %306. Clearing and Planting.%--The land about the cabin was cleared by grubbing the bushes and cutting down trees under a foot in diameter and burning them. Big trees were "deadened," or killed, by cutting a "girdle" around them two or three feet above the ground, deep enough to destroy the sap vessels and so prevent the growth of leaves.[1] [Footnote 1: For a delightful account of life in the West, read W. C. Howells's _Recollections of Life in Ohio_ (edited by his son, William Dean Howells).] In the ground thus laid open to the sun were planted corn, potatoes, or wheat, which, when harvested, was threshed with a flail and fanned and cleaned with a sheet. At first the crop would be scarcely sufficient for home use. But, as time passed, there would be some to spare, and this would be wagoned to some river town and sold or exchanged for "store goods." If the settler chose his farm wisely, others would soon settle near by, and when a cluster of clearings had been made, some enterprising speculator would appear, take up a quarter section, cut it into town lots, and call the place after himself, as Piketown, or Leesburg, or Gentryville. A storekeeper with a case or two of goods would next appear, then a tavern would be erected, and possibly a blacksmith shop and a mill, and Piketown or Leesburg would be established. Hundreds of such ventures failed; but hundreds of others succeeded and are to-day prosperous villages. [Illustration: Mississippi produce boat[1]] [Footnote 1: From a model in the National Museum at Washington.]