One account said the Russians paid the Kashia Pomo people already living there “three blankets, two axes, three hoes, and a miscellaneous assortment of beads” for the use of the land.
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Handheld tools, long-handled hoes, propane weed burners and even goats figure alongside herbicides and their impact on the environment.
He also used large plows pulled by horses instead of relying solely on enslaved men and women working with hoes.
Within days of arrival, they typically head to the fields, sometimes using hoes and shovels or picking crops by hand.
In scorching heat, they attacked solid ground with pickaxes and hoes before carefully tucking the seedlings into the earth.
