USA > Massachusetts > The story of western Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 2
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Actually, it was a country of wide open spaces. Today it prob- ably comprises far more wooded area than when the Pilgrims landed.
This was not a natural condition, but the face of the country had been altered by two forces; the Indian and the beaver. The Indian was a persistent destroyer of all forest growth while the first settlers could thank the beaver for a great part of what timber was preserved for their use.
Numerous recorders testify to the facts and the reasons for the conditions which they found.
In 1524, Verrazzano was at Narragansett Bay, where he "often went five or six leagues into the interior, and found the country as pleasant as is possible to conceive. There are open plains twenty five or thirty leagues in extent, entirely free from trees or other hin- drances. On entering the woods we observed that they might be traversed by an army ever so numerous".
Capt. John Smith was off the Massachusetts coast in 1614. In the vicinity of Cape Ann he saw "many rising hills and on their tops and descents, many corn fields and delightful groves. Cape Cod is only a headland of high hills of sand, overgrown with shrubby pines, hurts (i. e., huckleberries), and such trash."
At Salem, in 1629, Francis Higginson said :- "I am told that about three miles from us a man may stand on a hilly place and see
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PRIMITIVE FORESTS
divers thousands of acres of ground, as good as may be and not a tree in the same".
From Salem also, in 1629, Thomas Graves reported :- "it is very beautiful in open lands, mixed with goodly woods and again open plains, in some places five hundred acres ; some places more, some less. The grass and weeds grow up to a man's face, in the lowlands and by fresh rivers abundance of grass and large meadows without any tree or shrub to hinder the sythe".
At Lord Baltimore's Plantation, in Maryland, in 1634 the adven- turers noted the "great curiosity of woods which are not choked up with under shrubs, but set commonly, one from another, in such distance as a coach and four horses may easily travel through them".
William Wood, in 1634, said that "the timber of the country grows straight and tall, some trees being twenty, some thirty foot high, before they spread their branches; generally the trees be not very thick, though there be many that will serve for mill posts, some being three foot and a half o're. And whereas, it is generally con- ceived that the woods grow so thick, that there is no more clear ground than is hewed out by labor of man; it is nothing so; in many places divers acres being clear, so that one may ride a hunting in most places of the land. There is no underwood saving in swamps and low grounds, for it being the custom of the Indians to burn the wood in November, when the grass is withered, and leaves dryed, it consumes all the underwood and rubbish, which otherwise would overgrow the country, making it unpassable, and spoil their much affected hunting; so that by this means, in those places where the Indians inhabit, there is scarce a bush or bramble, or any cumbersom underwood to be seen in the more champion ground. Small wood growing in these places where the fire could not come, is preserved". He added that there was good fodder in the woods, the trees being thin, and in the spring the grass grew rapidly on the burnt lands.
Thomas Morton, in his New English Canaan (1637), said that "the savages are accustomed to set fire of the country and to burn it twice a year; at the spring and the fall of the leaf. The reason is because it would otherwise be so overgrown with underweeds that it would be all a coppice wood and the people would not be able to pass through the country out of a beaten path. The burning of the grass destroys the underwoods and so scorcheth the elder trees that it shrinks them and hinders their growth very much, so that he who will find large trees and good timber must seek for them in the lower grounds where the grounds are wet and if he would endeavor to find any goodly cedars, must make his inquest for them in the valleys, for the savages, by this custom of theirs, have spoiled all the rest; for this custom hath been continued from the beginning. And lest the firing of the country should be an occasion of damnifying us and endangering our habitations, we ourselves have used carefully about the same times to observe the winds and fire the grounds about our own habitations to prevent the damage that might happen by any neglect thereof, if the fire should come near those houses in our ab-
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WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
sence. For, when the fire is once kindled, it spreads itself as well against, as with the wind, burning continually night and day, until a shower of rain falls to quench it. And this custom of firing the country is the means to make it passable, and by that means the trees grow here and there, as in our parks, and makes the country very beautiful and commodious".
Van der Donck was at New Netherlands about 1653 and observed that "the Indians have a yearly custom, which some of our Christians have adopted, of burning the woods, plains and meadows, in the fall of the year, when the leaves have fallen and the grass is dry. This brush-burning (i. e., of the Europeans) as it is called, is done to render hunting easier and to make the grass grow. Green trees in the woodlands do not suffer much".
The phrasing of these accounts suggests that burnings by the Europeans were foreign to their custom before coming to America, but they certainly were common practice after coming. Vincent, (1638), relates "that the lieutenant of the fort at Saybrook, with ten men armed, went out to fire the meadows and make them fit for mowing". The lieutenant himself (Lionel Gardiner) said that "the 22nd of February, I went out with ten men, and three dogs, half a mile from the house, to burn the weeds, leaves and reeds, upon the neck of land".
Though data is lacking to justify a positive statement, there are indications that in New England, these fires did not extend north of the Merrimac nor west of the Connecticut, nevertheless, of the coun- try in the vicinity of the Lachine Rapids, on the St. Lawrence River, in 1603, Champlain said that "the territory on the side of the fall, where we went overland, consists, so far as we saw it, of very open woods, where one can go with his armor, without much difficulty".
In concluding these citations of forest firings, it should be ob- served that the burning of forests and grasslands was a universal custom among aboriginal people, not only in America, but in many other regions of the world as well.
It seems probable, also, that fires were frequent even before Indian occupancy. Such fires could have been started by lightning striking the dead wood in hollow trees, from which a general con- flagration could have been kindled. In Idaho, in 1935, a local thunder- storm lasted less than two hours, but touched off 107 separate fires. Only the alertness of the Forest Service and Civilian Conservation Corps prevented a major catastrophe. It can confidently be assumed that fire has been a constant attendant of dry woods from time immemorial.
In some localities, as on Cape Cod, the continual burnings de- stroyed even the humus and duff. On the 1794 map of Springfield, a district of several square miles is designated as "pine barrens interspersed with unimprovable swamps". These pines were stunted, scrubby, pitch pines. Scattered among them were grey birches which attained little height before being broken by ice or wind storms. So it was then and so it is today. The soil was so thoroughly depleted,
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that in the three hundred years since the Indians occupied the land, not enough vegetable mold has accumulated to encourage even a covering of succulent grass. In recent years, as sections of this tract have been converted into public parks, it has been necessary to cart in loam to provide lodgement for grass seed. For fifty years this
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writer has had an intimate acquaintance with these trees and is confident that in that period, their growth has been in inches only, so little plant food is available.
In Massachusetts, in modern times, during the fall hunting season, forest fires frequently become such a menace that the season is closed by the authorities. Town fire departments, unable to cope with the situation, impress workers and with volunteers, labor until the fires are extinguished, after burning over hundreds, if not thousands, of acres. In Oregon, in 1933, an accidental fire, starting in a logging camp, roared through the finest stand of virgin timber in the state. An army of three thousand men fought the fire for seventeen days.
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That single fire destroyed more timber than the total lumber output of the United States for an entire year. In 1937, 150,000 forest fires in the United States devastated more than forty million acres of timberlands. That is, in one year, fire utterly destroyed the forest of more than four times the combined area of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. This, in modern times, in spite of all efforts toward protection and conservation. One in close touch with these episodes can imagine the result if no one was interested in halting the conflagration and even aided and abetted its continuance.
Sparseness of wood growth is also indicated by the efforts re- quired to procure the immense amounts of wood required for domestic fuel. Josselyn, in 1637, said that "the number of ships that trans- ported passengers to New England was 298, supposed; men, momen and children, as near as can be guessed, 21,200". Allowing five to a family, this would total over 4,000 families. Records of allowances made to ministers in various New England communities make it apparent that the average family used fifty cords of wood a year. Thus, these four thousand families would require 200,000 cords a year. Not for just one year, but for each and every year ; an appalling drain on the meager resources of the country. It is not surprising that in 1699, Northampton, Massachusetts, considered "the great difficulty we are in to get firewood".
In comparison, a statement of Emerson (1846) is of interest. He said that "pitch pine is preferred to any other wood in the northern states as fuel for steam engines and vast quantities are also consumed for the supply of families". The estimated annual con- sumption by Massachusetts railroads at that time was 53,710 cords, which was almost entirely pitch pine.
The present site of Boston was so devoid of forest that for fuel the settlers were forced to rely on the wooded, fire-free islands off shore. So usual was this custom that common measure was not by the cord or cart load, but by the boat load. The "Laws and Liberties of Massachusetts" (1648) provided "that where wood is brought to any town or house, by boat, it shall be thus accounted. A boat of four tons shall be accounted three loads; twelve ton, nine loads; twenty ton, fifteen loads".
Capt. John Smith (1614) said "Oak is the chief wood". Morton, (1632) in his list of New England trees gave greatest prominence to oak, walnut and chestnut. Wood (1634) said that the "chief and common timber for ordinary use is oak and walnut". The white pine, hemlock, maple and beech, all sensitive to fire, apparently were unnoticeable, being restricted to the swampy areas.
Obviously, centuries of extensive burnings would tend to make the fire-resistant oaks the "chief wood", where any forest existed.
With the dispersal of the Indians, a paradoxical problem con- fronted the white occupants of the land. Burnings by the settlers were frowned on and greatly restricted by the authorities. The "Laws and Liberties of Massachusetts" (1648) reads,-"whosoever shall kindle any fires in woods or grounds lying in common or
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inclosed, so as the same shall run into such corn grounds or inclos- ures, before the tenth of the first month (March) or after the last of the second month (April 30) or on the last day of the week, or on the Lord's day shall pay all damages and half so much for a fine".
In consequence, where natural conditions were at all favorable, woodlands and pastures rapidly became overgrown with brush. Then the era of the brush scythe and the grub hoe.
The territory now comprised in Northfield, Massachusetts, was, in the early 17th century, occupied by the Squakheag Indians and they were in possession as late as 1669, when in consequence of the failure of an expedition against the Mohawks, the tract was abandoned. Two years later, Northampton people petitioned for permission to occupy the territory and pointed out that "for want of inhabitants to burn the meadows and woods, the underwoods increase, which will be very prejudicial to those that shall come to inhabit, and the longer the worse".
When freed from destruction by the Indians, the forest shortly became economic value, as will be seen in the following table, giving the average age at which various trees attain certain diameters,-
For Fuel 8" diameter
For Saw Logs 18" diameter
Hemlock
35 to 50 years
85 to 100 years
White Pine
35 to 45 years
90 to 100 years
Hickory
50 to 60 years
110 to 120 years
Thus, in certain parts of Connecticut, a century after the ending of the Pequot War in 1637, ample building timber was available. In other sections, local control achieved a similar result and with the conclusion of King Philip's War in 1675, all of southern New England saw the beginnings of forest growth.
This date is too late, however, to account for the pine panels, thirty-six inches and more in width, found in 18th century houses still existing. Such probably came from the fire-free forests of Vermont and New Hampshire. With the termination of Father Rasle's War in 1726, immense logs began to be floated down the Merrimac and Connecticut, ostensibly for the King's navy, but the records are replete with evidence that large quantities of these "mast trees" were diverted to saw mills of the river towns and became building material.
As the country became settled by the English, much of the land, was cultivated, mowed and pastured. Clearing continued well into the 19th century. Between 1820 and 1850, the area of cleared land attained its maximum, amounting to 75 or 80 per cent in some sections of southern New England. Since the Civil War, there has been a gradual abandonment of this cleared land in many places and slow reversion to forest. During the seventies, the portable steam saw mill came in and by the end of the 19th century, much of the remain- ing old woodland had been cut. As a result of these factors, more
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WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
than sixty per cent of southern New England is now brush land or young forest, either succeeding the older woods or invading land which was once cleared and cultivated.
This increase in wooded area continues constantly. In the five years from 1929 to 1934 the increase was nearly thirty-seven per cent, as is shown by the latest available statistics, giving the total acreage of farm woodlands (as distinguished from parks and public forests) in the section under consideration. There are-
1929
1934
Massachusetts
862,569
1,027,724
Rhode Island
121,589
148,541
Connecticut
599,405
990,150
1,583,563
2,166,415
The total acreage of these three states is 9,206,400, of which this 2,166,415 acres of woodland is less than one-quarter. But this approxi- mate one-quarter is woodland only and does not include a vast acre- age now in brush and rapidly becoming woodland.
Mention has been made of trees protected from fire by swamps. Of these swamps, there were two distinct types; one the depressions, too low to naturally drain, remaining as a result of the glacial era. Such were the "unimprovable swamps" shown on the 1794 map of Springfield. Of this type, southern New England had an abundance, but far more numerous were the swamps made by beavers. In num- ber, these were beyond computation. Every stream, brook, and rill was dammed by these industrious animals, to produce swamps, which were abandoned and new ones created as the adjacent food supply was exhausted. The total acreage was enormous.
The beaver has been called the original conservationist. Its mode of life necessitates bodies of water of uniform depth at all seasons of the year and these it provides by building across flowing streams, dams, which are often of considerable magnitude, some being known more than a quarter mile in length and from ten to fourteen feet in height. The resultant ponds become settling basins and in them is deposited the alluvial matter brought in by the streams. In time, these ponds become filled with silt and the accumulated earthy matter provides a deep seed bed of wonderful fertility.
At the time of the white settlement, there were literally millions of these beaver ponds in North America, long before filled with sediment and since then, countless others have been formed and filled. Along the thousands of smaller streams there was colony after colony; dam after dam in close succession, as many as a hun- dred to the mile. At Three Forks, in Montana, Lewis and Clark saw the streams stretching away in a succession of beaver ponds,. as far as the eye could reach; almost a continuous chain of ponds and swamps. On Mission Creek, near Cashmere, Washington, beavers are reported recently to have built sixty dams in only five miles of the creek's length.
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PRIMITIVE FORESTS
In the numerous brook valleys, the settlers found these fertile "beaver meadows" of the abandoned pond sites, surrounded by the land cleared by these energetic animals, ready for their immediate use. Van der Donck saw such meadows, which he described in 1655, though he apparently did not recognize their origin. He said that "we also find meadow grounds, far inland, which make good hayland. Where the meadows are boggy and wet, such failings are easily remedied by breaking the bogs and letting off the water." Such reference could only be to a beaver meadow, readily drained by the breaking of the dam. A natural marsh could not be drained in such a casual manner, but would require explosives or steam shovels. Many of the richest tillable lands in New England were formed by the artificial works of the beaver. The aggregate area of rich soil deposits in the United States thus created is almost beyond belief and probably amounts to millions and millions of acres.
The beaver feeds on the inner bark of trees such as the poplar, willow, birch and alder. This they obtain by felling the trees, which they do rather rapidly and efficiently. It requires about an hour's work to gnaw down a tree four inches in diameter, while a branch nearly an inch thick, can be cut at a single bite. They prefer to cut trees four to ten inches in diameter, but it is not uncommon to see trees felled that are from twelve to fifteen inches through and a diameter of three feet six inches appears to be about the known limit. Seldom are the pines or hardwood molested. Thus, by remov- ing the soft woods, light and freedom are given to the more valuable trees, which enables them to attain a size and vigor resistant to attacks by fire, when the swamps later drain through the disintegra- tion of the abandoned dam. For their winter supply of food, a single colony has been known to fell a thousand trees, so that little time is required to clear the timber about a pond, which is then abandoned, to fill up and form the desirable level meadow. By some caprice of nature, many of these meadows were entirely free from brush and trees, providing mowable meadow. Others, starting with such water loving trees as the cedars and red maples, grew up to a forest with a damp underground, over which fire could not run. On such isolated, wooded tracts, the first settlers of southern New Eng- land were forced to rely for both building timber and firewood.
Scattered through both the natural and beaver swamps were elevated areas and ridges, which, being above the water level, became islands. These islands were the havens, asylums and homes of the Indians, especially during the winter season. Native enemies were here impeded; the whites were scarcely able to negotiate them at all. Almost no other forest or wooded cover existed, so that from necessity, the forts and villages of the natives were there located. Contemporary accounts clearly indicate this to be a fact.
Of the Indians about Brookfield, Massachusetts, in 1675, Ephraim Curtis said that these "have newly begun to settle themselves upon an island containing about four acres of ground, being compassed round with a broad mirey swamp on one side and a muddy river
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WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
with meadow on both sides of it, on the other side, and but only one place that a horse could possibly pass and there with great difficulty, by reason of the mire and dirt."
Capt. Thomas Wheeler in 1675 said that "there being a very rocky hill on the right hand and a thick swamp on the left, in which there were many of these cruel heathen, who there way laid us. They fired violently out of the swamp and from behind the bushes on the hill side and wounded me sorely".
The Present State of New England, London, 1675, speaks of a skirmish in which the whites "set on about five hundred Indians not far from Pocassit, pursuing them into a large swamp. This Pocasit swamp is judged about seven or eight miles long and so full of bushes and trees, that a parcel of Indians may be within the length of a pike of a man and he cannot discover them; and besides, this, as well as other swamps, is so soft ground, that an Englishman can neither go or stand thereon and yet these bloody savages will run along over it".
Of another skirmish, A New and Further Narrative of New England, London, 1676, says that "the Indians forsook their new built fort and that swamp wherein the fight happened and posted themselves in a swamp twenty miles distant."
The War in New England, London, 1677, says that on a similar occasion the settlers "gained a swamp wherein we found 1,500 wigwams (quite apparently a misprint for 150) and by night had possession of the fort, of which we were dispossessed soon after by an unexpected recruit of fresh Indians out of an adjoining swamp". The natives were "encamped in a well fortified swamp. They thought fit to forsake their refuge and leave both it and their wigwams to our disposal, who, lodging in their rooms that night, set fire to 150 of their wigwams next morning."
In none of the contemporary accounts of the Pequot War or of King Philip's War is there any mention of woods except in con- nection with swamps. Roger Williams accepted the two as synonym- ous, giving cuppimachaug, as the Indian word for a "thick wood; a swamp." He adds that "these thick woods and swamps, like the bogs to the Irish, are the refuges for women and children in war, whilst the men fight".
A New and Further Narrative of New England, London, 1676, prefaces its account with this statement. "For the better understand- ing some Indian words, which are necessarily used in the following narrative, the reader is desired to take notice that a swamp signifies a moorish place, overgrown with woods and bushes, but soft like a quagmire or Irish bog, over which a horse cannot pass at all, nor English foot, without great difficulty." The other words which the author defined were sachem, squaw, and wigwam, all recognized as pure Indian words.
In spite of labored efforts by lexicographers to trace the word "swamp" to a continental European origin, it quite possibly is a native American word.
Marsh Formerly Between Main and Dwight Streets, Springfield
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WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
An inevitable by-product of this great expanse of swampy area was the large number of mosquitoes, which were a terror to the settlers. Wood, in 1634, said that "the musketoe is not unlike to our gnats in England. In places where there is no thick woods or swamps, there is none or very few. In new plantations they be troublesome for the first year, but the wood decaying, they vanish. These flys cannot endure wind, heat, or cold so they are only trouble- some in close, thick weather. Many that be bitten will fall scratching, whereupon their faces and hands swell. Others are never troubled with them at all. Those, likewise, that swell with their biting the first year, never swell the second. For my own part, I have been troubled as much with them or some like them, in the Fen country of England, as ever I was here."
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