The Iroquois system of work reflected their communal land system. Since the Iroquois owned property together, they worked together as well. The women performed difficult work in large groups, going from field to field helping one another work each other's land. Together they would sow the fields as a "mistress of the field" distributed a set amount of seeds to each of the women. The Iroquois women of each agricultural group would select an old but active member of their group to act as their leader for that year and agree to follow her directions. The women performed other work cooperatively as well. The women individually cut wood for family use, but their leader would oversee the collective carrying of the wood back to the village. The women's clans performed other work. According to Mary Jemison, a white woman assimilated with the Seneca while a young woman, the collective effort averted "every jealousy of one having done more or less work than another."