10 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 380 



exception may be made in thr cise of coarse sandy sails which have been abandoned 

 and which offer no particular tiifiiculties to cultivation, but even in this instance, 

 it would seem that the cropping of sand\ soils was given up principally because 

 of poor water-holding capacity, and this is largeh a physical relationship. 



Summary 



In concluding a discussion on the effects of cultivation on the character of 

 Massachusetts soils, it should be pointed out that its influence was not important 

 until the coming of the white settlers. Geology and climate, on the other hand, 

 had largely accomplished their ends in developing most of the important character- 

 istics of our soils long ages before any civilization was established. It should be 

 further emphasized that some of the effects of geology and climate on the soils 

 of Massachusetts, such as their sandy nature and their strongly leached profiles, 

 play a greater role in both past and present-day fertility relationships than do 

 early cultural practices. Even in the beginning, nature did not endow our soils 

 with a large fertility reserve, and even this reserve was in a form which could be 

 quickly and easily dissipated. We must not condemn the ways of our forefathers 

 too strongly because, even if they had been less ruthless in exploiting the fertility 

 of their land, the natural reserve would not have lasted indefinitely. Sections 

 of the country where soils have been endowed by nature with far greater reserves 

 of fertility than ours are now learning that these reserves are not inexhaustible, 

 even under what are now considered good soil management practices. 



The Massachusetts soils which are now being used for crop production may 

 be characterized, before soil amendments are added, as being acid in reaction 

 and deficient in nitrogen, calcium, potassium, magnesium, and to a lesser degree 

 phosphorus. Soils of limestone origin or with a strong limestone influence may 

 be less acid in reaction and contain some available calcium and magnesium, but 

 they are deficient in other elements. All the cultivated soils are low in organic 

 matter. Agricultural soils in Massachusetts, in short, may be characterized as 

 productive but not fertile. 



EARLY PASTURES IN MASSACHUSETTS 



The first grazing areas in Massachusetts were the woods, which had previously 

 been the hunting grounds of the Indians, together with scattered natural open 

 meadow areas. Contrary to what might have been expected, the country was 

 not a continuous expanse of dense forest for, as a result of being burned over 

 annually by the Indians, extensive areas of open woods existed which provided 

 considerable grazing. William Wood wrote in 1634 that "in many places, divers 

 Acres being cleare, so that one may ride a hunting in most places of the land, if 

 he will venture himselfe for being lost: there is no underwood saving in swamps, 

 and low grounds that are wet . . . where the Trees grow thinne, there is good 

 fodder to be got among the Woods. "26 The natural occurrence of open meadow 

 areas is also indicated by the same writer, "There be likewise divers places neare 

 the Plantations great broad Meadowes, wherein grow neither shrub nor Tree, 

 lying low, in which places grows as much grass as may be throwne out with a 

 Sithe, thick and long, as high as a man's middle." Graves wrote from Salem in 

 1629 that the country was "very beautiful in open lands mixed with goodly 

 woods, and again open plains, in some places 500 acres, some more some less, not 



2*New England's Prosp«ct, p. 17. 



