Go green? Don't ask the Europeans about that...

Use of the Land

            The main commodity of this new world was indeed the land. However the use of land differs drastically in Europeans and Indians. The northern Indians were more “game” driven. They lived entirely as hunters and gatherers due to their ecology. The Indians migrated seasonally to fulfill their needs. Once the ice broke, in the spring, northerners moved out to coastal sites to tend to their fishing nets and canoes. They relied a lot on the food sources of seashores and rivers. In the spring, they are able to get back to their typical routine of easy living. They, then, had to endure winters in which food was scarce. The Indians in away didn’t prepare very well for the season. However, they had enough food to survive and didn’t seem to care which boggled the minds of the Europeans. Southern Indians were more agriculturally developed, relying heavily on crops. Grain, which was the main staple, in the south, seemed, “ to smooth out the seasonal scarcities of food,” (42). This allowed them to maintain almost seven times the amount of people per hundred square miles. New England Indians, whether in the north or the south, moved from habitat to habitat for their demands of the ecosystem. Those demands were kept minimal because they moved, “according to the richness of the site and the season,” (53). They were careful of the ecosystem to not overuse a single species. They appreciate the land around them and were mindful of the ecosystem.

            The Europeans couldn’t help but take advantage of all the commodities this rich land provided. The Indians way of agriculture was too slow and not productive enough. They began to use farm animals to plow from their crops. They wanted to get the most out of each piece of land. The plow and hooves of the animal damaged the soil until there wasn’t enough nutrient rich soil left. They completely exhausted the land after numerous times plowing. “Colonial farmers treated their land as a resource to be mined until it was exhausted, rather than one to be conserved” (153). The two methods to clear forests for agriculture were girdling and chopping trees down to their stump and then burning them. Girdling was a process of shaving the bark off the tree. It wasted a lot of wood but it also allowed the tree to not fall right away until several years later. One of the first noticeable things about New England is the vast amount of trees. The idea was implemented in their heads, is the amount of supplies they could come away with from these trees. Tree would provide timber which in high demand for the Europeans. Trees were cleared to provide fields for agriculture. They were also used in mercantile and trade. Trees were sent back to Europe to pay off debts people had to financial bankers. Many different species of trees were cut down, gathered up and sent to Europe to build vassals with. New England was cued as the key provider to the Royal Navy. “New England lumbering used forests as if they would last forever,” (111). The continued deforestation left a significant mark on the ecosystem.