Hunting
Prior to the arrival of the Europeans in New England, the Native Americans used the land primarily for Hunting. Most of the land was covered in large forests and deer and other game were plentiful.
Many think that the forests of the New England were dense and nearly impassable. However the Native Americans set the forests on fire periodically in order to clear the forests of unnecessary underbrush. The fires burned away all the leaves that dropped from trees leaving the forest floor almost completely bare earth. This allowed the Native Americans to stalk animals silently.
- Timothy Offei-Addo
-Tmothy Offei-Addo
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Agriculture
When the Europeans began settling New England, they were greeted by the vast forests that the Native Americans had maintained through
periodic burning. Since there was no market for the wood from these trees the only profitable option was to clear out the land to form farms and pastures. The farms would provide food that they could eat as well as sell. Along with food they set up farms for Merino sheep. The wool of the Merino sheep was being made into hats in Europe so it was a very profitable business to go into. We have evidence of this from the abandoned rock walls that were to fence the sheep in. However during the mid-1850’s and into the late 1800’s many farmers abandoned their farms, either because they were not profitable anymore or because the allure of the west called them.
- Riley MacNeil
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Change in Land Usage Over Time
“Within fifty years of landing at Plymouth Rock, the Native American, fire-managed ecosystems of southern New England became a memory… By 1700, the myth of a dense and impenetrable wilderness, tamed by the ax, became the heritage of the New England landscape” – Tom Wessels, Reading the Forested Landscape
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