How did the pioneers clear the land?

[Yoga Face]

I got into this discussion with an Historian at the Scadding Cabin at the CNE


He did not know the answer but this is what I conjecture

A farmer is given tract of land, he must clear a public road and also build a Cabin to keep the land

How does he clear the forest? and survive at the same time ?


I assume he sold good hardwood to the British which had few trees left and were desperate for good hardwood so at first he was more a lumber jack than a farmer but he must be near a river which has a mill as transporting trees by land must be very difficult by horse when there are few roads

The crap trees he burns



The British navy and commercial vessels were built in Toronto then sailed to England to be sold and dressed, I think, making a demand for good lumber

He then plants between the stumps which are left to rot

This takes a a couple of generations before the land is clear of stumps

Sound good?

 

[danmand]

They cut the trees and burned out the roots with slow charcoal-fed fires. Rocks were used to build buildings, fences, or just piled in the corner of a field.

The stumps were dug up with help 3 logs and pulleys.

 

[Yoga Face]

They cut the trees and burned out the roots with slow charcoal-fed fires. Rocks were used to build buildings, fences, or just piled in the corner of a field.

Good one but did they not sell the lumber to survive ?

 

[red]

depends on the farmer and their level of experience i would guess

they would use the trees for fences and to build a house and barn for their livestock and for firewood.

some farmers burned down the trees and others cut them down. stumps would be taken up as they had time and planted around in the meantime, but they would eventually take them up as they would prvent ploughing and better yields.

it would take years to clear their property

 

[blackrock13]

The stumps, if they could be pulled, were used to build formidable fences.

 

[danmand]

The stumps, if they could be pulled, were used to build formidable fences.

The stump fences are still intact in the boundaries of my bush.

 

[red]

The stump fences are still intact in the boundaries of my bush.

have you tried waxing?

 

[OddSox]

Check out http://www.pioneerhandbooks.com - there are downloadable copies of 'instruction manuals' for pioneers from the 1800's...

 

[larry]

I can't believe someone has difficulty in figuring out how they cleared the land. axes and sweat. what's this question really about?

 

[Aardvark154]

The most primitive level was to girdle the trees and then plant crops beneath the dead trees. This also had the advantage that when the tree was cut down (as long as one didn't wait too long) that the wood was not as green and wet. Most of this sort of lumber was used for farm buildings, interior finishing, furniture making, fences etc. . . Of course it also depends upon the type of tree.

Ship Building is a specialized industry, not everyone knows what to look for in an oak to make good knees etc. . . Masts particularly for larger vessels were principally White Pine, but these had to be specially cut so as to avoid damaging them, and also had to be close enough to a river where they could be either floated to a shipyard or put aboard a mast ship to be shipped to Great Britain.

 

[Yoga Face]

The stumps were dug up with help 3 logs and pulleys.

Only the stumps that had to be removed IE roads or to build a house

Waaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy too much work to clear a whole forest this way

 

[danmand]

Only the stumps that had to be removed IE roads or to build a house

Waaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy too much work to clear a whole forest this way

If they could afford it, there was also dynamite.

 

[Yoga Face]

I can't believe someone has difficulty in figuring out how they cleared the land. axes and sweat. what's this question really about?

My question is how did they minimalism the hard labor

Cutting all the trees down creates two problems

1 WTF do you do with the trees?

2 WTF do you do with the stumps?

Even if you pull out the stumps out you got a hole in the ground but that is too much work anyway

Burning the stumps with charcoal sounds good then letting them rot as this allows the stumps to turn into fertilizer

Selling the trees sounds like a way to make a living as you clear the land

England needed lumber so the good trees could be cut at a mill then sailed over I would a think

But you need to be near a mill on a river as transporting a tree with horses through a forest would take a long time

 

[Yoga Face]

its a great question and actually was thinking something similar recently. Have you ever driven across this country? It's HUUUGE. How did they clear all that brush for the railway? How did they build through the mountains and across rivers ... ? The challenges they faced were incredible. It's absolutely awesome what the pioneers and early settlers accomplished.

If we had to do endure those challenges today we'd all drop dead.

The Romans did the same thing when conquering Europe as they had to cut roads through the forests to transport a huge army


But perhaps we are wrong

Perhaps it was not all woods but woods mixed with meadows?

 

[diehard]

Whatever it was, it must have been fucking hard.

 

[Yoga Face]

Check out http://www.pioneerhandbooks.com - there are downloadable copies of 'instruction manuals' for pioneers from the 1800's...

A fantastic technique they used is given away in the 1875 settlers manual.

“Take a long shanked auger, bore two holes, one above the other, at an angle so they will meet some distance inside; after which some pitch fagots are lit and introduced into the upper hole, the flame causing a suction of air from the lower hole, acting something like a blow pipe. The portion of the tree inside of the sap being more or less of a pitchy nature, burns with great rapidity and in a short time appears and roars like a huge furnace.“

The chapter goes on to explain that this technique largely keeps the fire within the tree, lessening the chance of what we call today an uncontrolled burn.

It’s quite ingenious – creating a self-sustaining bellows out of just two holes and a source of ignition.

 

[Aardvark154]

If they could afford it, there was also dynamite.

Only after Confederation and Nitroglycerin (as I presume most know, extremely unstable) was only available from about 1850 on.

Black Powder would have been both expensive and inefficient for stump clearing.

 

[red]

My question is how did they minimalism the hard labor

they worked fucking hard.

 

[Yoga Face]

the most primitive level was to girdle the trees and then plant crops beneath the dead trees. This also had the advantage that when the tree was cut down (as long as one didn't wait too long) that the wood was not as green and wet. Britain.

what do you mean?

 

[OddSox]

what do you mean?

Cut a section of bark around the base of the tree (or drill a series of holes). This interferes with sap flow between the roots and the leaves and the tree eventually dies. Then you cut it down and use it for firewood...