Regrowth
After the farms were abandoned in the late 1800's and early 1900’s biological succession of the land took place. White Pines were the first trees to grow. The farm lands, which had been tilled every spring, had deep loamy soil. White Pines thrive in areas with a lot of sun and deep soil, and the abandoned farms had both. Hardwoods such as white oaks and red maples also grew, but not in such profusion. The sheep pastures which had not been tilled as
deep as the planting fields exhibited a different type of succession. In the first few years small shrubs grew in the pastures taking advantage of the full sun. After a few years Juniper plants began to sprout up and take over the pasture. At the same time hardwoods, such as maples or oaks began to grow. The Juniper grew faster at first, but the hardwoods soon caught up and then passed the shorter junipers. After 20 or 30 years the canopy of the hardwood forest, shaded out the junipers and the junipers began to die. Today if you walk in the woods and you happen to see the decaying remains of a juniper, one can guess that you are probably walking on what was once pasture land.
- Timothy Offei-Addo
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Logging
When New Englanders saw that the forest that had once been cleared had come back, they realized that they could use the trees to make a profit. The White Pines which were the first trees to grow after farm abandonment were found to be useful in the business of box making. Portable saw mills were set up all over the country side and the
majority of the White Pines were cut down. After being cut down they were then made into boards and shipped to the market town in the area to be processed and made into boxes. White Pines were not exclusively chopped down, because some of the hardwood trees were cut down for other purposes. However when the White Pines were cut down they did not regrow, meanwhile the hardwood trees began to sprout stems from the stumps of the older trees. Over time these stems became trees and the Northern Hardwood forest came to be what it is today.
-Timothy Offei-Addo
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