At the close of the winter hunt "they return to their villages, in the month of April, and after putting their lodges in order, commence preparing the ground to receive the seed. The number of acres cultivated by that part of the two nations, who reside at their villages in this vicinity, is supposed to be upwards of _three hundred_. They usually raise from seven to eight thousand bushels of corn, besides beans, pumpkins, melons, &c. About one thousand bushels of the corn they annually sell to traders and others; the remainder (except about five bushels for each family, which is taken with them,) they put into bags, and bury in holes dug in the ground, for their use in the spring and summer. The labor of agriculture is confined principally to the women, and this is done altogether with a hoe. In June, the greatest part of the young men go out on a summer hunt, and return in August. While they are absent the old men and women are collecting rushes for mats, and bark to make into bags for their corn, &c. "The women usually make about three hundred floor mats every summer.... The twine which connects the rushes together, is made either of basswood bark, after being boiled and hammered, or the bark of the nettle; the women twist or spin it by rolling it on the knee with the hand." (Morse, (1), App., pp. 124-127.) Some men, as well as women, of these tribes are often employed in and about the lead mines on the Mississippi, not far from their villages. The customs of the tribes, as related in the preceding notes, their hunts away from the villages during certain seasons of the year, their return to plant and care for their fields and gardens, and the placing of the surplus grain in caches, had probably been followed by native tribes of the Mississippi Valley and adjacent regions for generations before the coming of the Europeans. ILLINOIS.