In "engines" episode # 1471 the failure of the first settlement at Jamestown is ascribed
to malnutrition caused by tryptophan deficiency in maize.
I think the guy that wrote that book didn't do his homework. The Indians everywhere
grew maize and beans together. The two make a well balanced diet, as far as having all
the important amino acids is concerned.
I feel certain that when the Jamestown people got maize seed to plant, they also got
beans to plant, though I can find nothing on Internet to that effect.
At Plymouth, a couple years before the Pilgrims landed,the Indians in the vicinity had lost
nine tenths of their numbers, presumably from an infection brought by European fishermen.
They were not strong enough to fight the Pilgrims. In addition, an Indian who learmed tp speak
English because he had been kidnapped and taken to England (by one Thomas Hunt -( no relation,
I assure you ) and been allowed toreturn taught the colonists how to raise corn. It was to be
planted when "the leaves on the white oak were the size of a mouse's ear" . And beneath it
was to be put a herring (alewife) as fertillizer. The Indians had in many places weirs for trapping
the fish in the rivers when they came quite early to spawn.
I have never heard of herring being available in the Jamestown area. This would have meant that
the Jamestown people had little or nothing for fertilizer for the maize, which could have greatly
reduced yield, and contributed to severe food shortage.
Wordwind, and comments?