Cronon 7
the European settlers had domestic animals, once they
could import them and keep them alive
- hogs (pigs, swine, boar) ran wild
in the woods--wild boar are very fierce animals and
could defend themselves
- cattle also were left free to
range in the summer
- oxen provided the power to plow
the fields and pull carts
- sheep were crucial for wool for
clothing
- horses were owned mostly by the
rich
cattle were owned even if they ran wild, this was somewhat less
true for hogs
- these concepts of ownership must have been confusing to
the Indians, you could own land and then also animals running
wild on someone else's land?
- the greatest problem was the damage these animals did to
Indian fields
- Indians had to start fencing their fields, which made
boundaries more meaningful and increased the investment
necessary to farm
- wolves were hunted to reduce how many domestic
animals they killed
- wolves were extirpated (locally extinct) in Massachusetts
by 1840
- swamps were cleared because they sheltered wolves
fencing crop land sufficiently to protect it from cattle and
hogs was not easy
- fences made property much clearer
- did not last long unless made of cedar so were gradually
replace by stone walls made of the stones that heaved
up even in established fields
- hogs were such a problem that with more extended
settlement they were often confined to islands
- eventually in New England hogs were confined and fed
scraps, in the south free range hogs continued to be common
and wild boar are still a problem for farmers today
cattle were an important cash crop and had a significant impact
on farming patterns and ecology
- the need for large areas of pasture and large amounts of
hay for winter meant towns expanded and pushed people to form
new towns
- dirt roads were wide for driving large herds of cattle to
market
- native grasses did not fare well when heavily grazed and
were replaced by European grasses
- European weeds came with European crops and spread
rapidly
Plowed cropland was a very different new ecosystem
- plowing let oxygen into compacted soils
- but it also exposed the soil to erosion
- fields lost their fertility quickly
- the first fertilizer used by the colonists was fish from
the spring runs
- because many animals ranged freely manure was not as
available as a fertilizer as in Europe
