PASTURE CULTURE 9 



In 1853 C. L. Flint wrote that, "He [the early farmer] raised wheat until the 

 land became too poor, and then he raised corn, and when it would no longer 

 produce corn, he sowed barley or rye, and so on to beans."2i 



The same general pattern of exploiting the native soil fertility was followed in 

 practically all areas of Massachusetts which were brought under cultivation, 

 although, of course, it was not followed in all areas at the same time. A con- 

 siderable period of time elapsed between the settling of Plymouth in 1620 and 

 the founding of some of the hill towns in western Massachusetts during the 

 latter part of the eighteenth century. The rapid destruction of humus did not 

 worry the "exploiting" pioneer because he had no intention of settling permanently 

 and cultivating the land. That the farmers who succeeded the pioneers were 

 more careful and diligent in their farming operations is shown in a statement made 

 by Timothy Dwight; "That which may be called the second set of planters may be 

 considered as regularly superior to the first and the third, when there is a third, 

 as regularly superior to the second. "22 Before better systems of farming were 

 instituted, however, early cultural practices had destroyed most of the original 

 store of soil humus and with it most of the soil's native productive capacity. 



Besides severely impairing productive capacity, this destruction of humus 

 had a pronounced deleterious effect on the soil's physical condition. Instead of the 

 topsoil's being loose and friable and capable of growing good crops without much 

 tillage, as many references indicate, more thorough tillage practices soon became 

 necessary and grew increasingly difficult. The author of American Husbandry, 

 in commenting on the "excellent crops" from "very bad tillage" on newly cleared 

 land, says, "they are apt to suppose the same treatment will do on land long since 

 broken up which is far from being the case."23 The difficulties experienced in 

 plowing where the mould layer was absent (possibly because of being burned over 

 annually) were described bj' William Wood in 1634, when he wrote, "This ground 

 is in some places of a soft mould and easie to plow ... in other places so tough 

 and hard, that I have seene ten Oxen toyled, their Iron chaines broken, and their 

 Shares and Coulters much strained. "^^ 



(The effects of cultural practices and the importance of soil humus and their 

 relationships to the physical condition of Massachusetts soils are points which 

 will be further expanded in discussing the improvement of permanent and semi- 

 permanent pastures.) 



By no means all of the land which was exhausted was kept under cultivation; 

 some was relegated to hay-land and pasture and much more was abandoned and 

 allowed to revert to timber. In 1800 Timothy Dwight observed that "several 

 specimens of an entire change in the forest vegetation are common in many, 

 perhaps in all, parts of New England where the land has been cultivated, and 

 again covered with wood."^^ This land abandonment probably began and 

 progressed most rapidly on areas where physical handicaps were greatest. The 

 presence of many rocks or conditions leading to poor drainage are physical handi- 

 caps which make cultivation a difficult, laborious procedure. When native fertility 

 was depleted and the use of fertility supplements became obligatory, farmers 

 naturally chose land which could be easily tilled. The introduction and increased 

 use of machinery has also been a factor in the abandonment of steep and rocky 

 land. The soils which are now being cultivated, therefore, are not necessarily 

 inherently more fertile than many which have been abandoned, but many of the 

 physical obstacles to cultivation are either absent or not objectionable. Some 



2lMass. Sute Bd. Agric. 1st Annual Report (1853), Pt. I. p. 2. 



22Travels. II. 469. 



2*American Husbandry, pp. 59-60. 



2*New England's Prospect, p. 14. 



25Travels, II, 440. 



