Re: PHOTO 1 - cows for NE Cowman

Posted by Matt from CT on September 03, 2006 at 10:19:04 from (24.177.7.213):

In Reply to: PHOTO 1 - cows for NE Cowman posted by David in Wales on September 03, 2006 at 08:16:57:

If I was a cow on that grass, I'd probably be pretty contented :)

My part of the U.S. (New England) has a lot in common with old England geographically. Our part of the Appalachians once joined with Britain's mountains back before the continental drift; and the same glacial forces worked both areas.

Anyway, have a really good book on stone walls written by a UConn professor of geology. All of upland New England has stone walls to some degree -- only the deep silt of the big river valleys, and the deep glacial sands of the coast buried the stones too deep for them to not work up from frost once the land was cultivated.

He also explained why the stone walls are always waist high (simple body mechanics -- any higher, it's a lot more work to lift) except for special places like a farm yard where you needed to tightly confine a lot of animals.

Only waist high won't hold any critters -- the cows could just step over them, the sheep would just climb over them.

The walls for the most part where just a place to put waste stone -- originally around wood fences, and later when the walls where rebuilt in better shape, they where still topped with wood fencing to keep the cows & sheep at bay.

It generally took 30 to 50 years for the stones to start really becoming a problem. Most of the stone walls in New England where actually built in the timeframe of 1785-1825. The land had been farmed enough for the stones to work up; we had surplus labor since better western lands like Ohio had not yet been opened up by developments like the Erie Canal & railroads. Most of the stone walls enclosed fields about 4 acres in size -- because that was an efficient distance for Oxen to pull the stone boats...and most stone wall building took place before draft horse where common in New England.

Today, when you see large, stone free farm fields in the upland areas...it's only because the stones where trucked off as building materials during the 20th century when motor vehicles made it practical to move the large quantities great distances.

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