Introduction to the Study of United States History

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: III. NEW ENGLAND Physiography New England is a great granite mass. On the east this has been bitten into by the sea. On the south the descent is more gradual and the rivers flowing from the hills have brought down enough deposit to create a small coast plain. Everywhere are hills and rapidly flowing rivers...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: III. NEW ENGLAND Physiography New England is a great granite mass. On the east this has been bitten into by the sea. On the south the descent is more gradual and the rivers flowing from the hills have brought down enough deposit to create a small coast plain. Everywhere are hills and rapidly flowing rivers running down widening valleys into natural harbors. The whole was glacier swept, and the soil, while hard to cultivate, is deep and rich. In 1783 most of the New Englanders made their living by agriculture. There were rich and flourishing farms at the valley mouths and in the valleys of the larger streams gr cu ure as Connecticut and the Merrimac. But as settlers pushed up these valleys they found the meadow land became narrower and they were forced to eke out a scanty existence by cultivating little crannies among the rocks. Most of the New England farmers, in fact, to keep body and soul together, had to do many things besides farming. Not only did they do their own farm labor, for hired labor could not be trusted to till the rough and rocky soil, but they were accustomed to making all their simple tools; their wives, to supplying the household with its clothes and provisions of all kinds; and on winter nights they sat around the fire and made nails or boots or hats, each according to his craft. While agriculture afforded a living for the majority, it afforded wealth for very few, and wealth had to be sought elsewhere, particularly in fishing. The New England coasts were rich in fish. The New Englanders, however, were not content with these but sought them also on the banks of Newfoundland many hundreds of miles away, where fishermen must often remain for months in their little craft. Fishing demanded boats, and the forests of New England growing down close to...