Agriculture spreads into southern Ontario
Canadian Museum of History, III-I-294 (D2004-23515)
AD 500
Agriculture began in earnest in southern Ontario with the introduction of beans, squash and, especially, maize (corn). Known as the Three Sisters, these crops were domesticated in Mexico in very ancient times, but required thousands of years of genetic manipulation before they could be fruitfully grown in a more northern climate. In the regions north of lakes Ontario and Erie, corn agriculture — and the more settled village life that it allowed — was particularly associated with the ancestors of the Huron-Wendat and other Iroquoian peoples.
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