AGEICULTURE. 



BY EDMUND HER8EY 



APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY WHEN FIRST SETTLED. 



The first settlers of Eastern Massachusetts did not find the 

 country covered with an unbroken forest ; but from early writers 

 we learn that there were large tracts of land entirely clear of 

 trees and bushes, and that on the high lands, where any trees 

 grew, in many places they stood at such distances apart that the 

 grass grew very luxuriantly between them. 



Mr. Grus, of Salem, wrote in 1627, " The country is very beau- 

 tiful. Open lands, mixed in goodly woods, and again open 

 plains, in some places five hundred acres, some more and some 

 less. . . . Not much troublesome to clear for the plough. The 

 grass and weeds grow up to a. man's face. In the low lands, and 

 by fresh rivers, there are large meadows without a tree or bush." 



The burning of the grass and leaves by the Indians is men- 

 tioned by Morton in 1632. He says : " The savages burn over 

 the country that it may not be overgrown with underwood." He 

 ;also says : u It scorches the older trees, and hinders their growth. 

 The trees grow here and there, as in English parks, and make the 

 country very beautiful." 



Wood, in 1634, said : " In many places divers acres are cleared, 

 so that one may ride a hunting in most places of the land. There 

 is no underwood, — save in the swamps and low grounds, — for 

 it being the custom of the Indians to burn the woods in Novem- 

 ber, when the grass is withered and leaves dried." He also says : 

 " There is good fodder in the woods where the trees are thin ; 

 and in the spring grass grows rapidly on the burnt land." 



Thus it is evident that the first settlers of this town did not 

 have to cut down the forest to clear the land before they could 

 plant their crops ; but they evidently found enough cleared to 

 plant as many acres as they desired, and have enough left for 

 pastures and mowing-fields. 



