72 TALKS ABOUT THE SOIL. 



CHAPTER VI. 



IMPROVEMENT OF SOILS. 



xv. TAMING THE LAND. When the first set- 

 tlers landed in the old colonies along the Atlantic 

 coast, they found a wild, virgin soil, covered every- 

 where with forests. They cut down the trees, and, 

 ploughing up the dark vegetable mould between the 

 stumps, planted their first crops of wheat, corn, oats, 

 and vegetables. The Indians had planted corn in a 

 few places here and there, in openings in the forest ; 

 but their planting was a poor, rude work, that made 

 very little impression on the soil. For the settlers in 

 Massachusetts Bay, along the Connecticut Valley, 

 about Providence, around the Dutch settlement of 

 New Amsterdam, and in Pennsylvania and Virginia, 

 the land was practically a fresh, native soil, in which 

 the useful plants were strangers. This new soil proved 

 to be very fertile. It contained all the elements the 

 plants needed, in abundance, and they flourished 

 amazingly. It was indeed a new world, and the peo- 

 ple discovered that wonderful new wealth could be 

 obtained everywhere as soon as the primeval forests 

 were cut down. The people went to work with great 

 energy, and cleared away the forests, and extended 

 their fields and crops in every direction. 



