Thorson, Robert M. Stone by Stone: The Magnificent History in New England's Stone Walls. New York: Walker. 2002. Print.
First Sentences:
Description:
Abandoned stone walls are the signatures of rural New England.Crisscrossing the parks, suburbs, and farms of nearly every village and town, they are relics of a vanished agricultural civilization that once flourished in hillside farming communities.
In 1939, the mining engineer Oliver Bowles, using data from an 1872 Department of Agriculture report on fences, estimated that there were approximately 240,000 miles of stone walls in New England.
That's longer than the U.S. coastline, or even the distance to the Moon at perigee. The mass of stone used in those walls is greater than that from all the remaining ancient monuments put together.
Description:
You might think a book about stone walls in New England would be a huge snooze. Well, I am here to tell you that I was completely absorbed by Robert M. Thorson's Stone by Stone: The Magnificent History in New England's Stone Walls. As we drove winding roads in Connecticut, friends and family grew sick of me spouting facts gained from Thorson's book, repeating fascinating info about the size and structure of the walls we passed, the history of stones from the area, the geological forces at work, and the reasons for both the development and the abandonment of stone walls. And once you learn about these walls and what unique properties they have, you cannot stop looking (or talking!) about them. I am completely addicted.
Thorson starts at the beginning: the geological history of the Earth and the origin of rocks, all types of rocks, but especially the granite ones found in New England. He tells of the bedrock layer that served as a solid barricade to keep eons of leaves, soil, and nutrients near the surface, as well as granite rocks that had once been forced up above the bedrock. To my surprise, I learned that the soil found by the original settlers in the 1600s - 1700s was fertile and rock-free. Stones in fields were never mentioned in diaries prior to the Revolutionary War.
But by 1800, as settlers had cleared forests for farm-able land, they exposed topsoil to the elements of rain, snow and frost causing run off of rich soil covering the granite trapped above the bedrock. With more soil washed away each year, farmers had to continually remove "potatoes" from their fields in order to plow.
Of course, these removed granite rocks had to be tossed somewhere, so the edges of the farmers' fields seemed a convenient place. This process of digging, loading onto a cart, hauling, and tossing of rocks dictated the perfect size field for farming: 2-4 acres. Any bigger and it would be too far and time-consuming to haul them away.
Eventually, the piles of stone were rearranged, carefully stacked and stretched over designated lines to become borders indicating ownership of fields. These walls were too low to hold in animals like sheep or cattle that could easily step over them, but they did serve as solid, if oft-disputed markers. By 1871, there were over 240,000 miles of walls in New England, taking about "forty million man days of efforts...to build them."
But shifting earth due to frost, settling of rocks in the wall, and gravity ate away at the walls, causing farmers to spend time repairing. Even mortared walls eventually gave way to the heaving ground during winter.
Thorson discusses factors that lead to the decline of the stone walls, including improved roads promoting migration, decline in oxen population (to haul rocks), and the opening of the great plains of the Midwest and the warmer climate of the west coast. Walls today are often found tumbled down and reclaimed by forests, or else picked apart by developers for re-use in modern properties.
Chock full of fascinating data about stones and walls, Stone By Stone carefully lays out how these walls changed farming, tools, human migration, and property ownership over the years. Walls affected environments, too, as they served as shelters and hiding places for animals, warm areas for plants, moss, and lichen to take hold, and warmed surrounding soil to transform the adjacent woodland ecosystem.
Thorson starts at the beginning: the geological history of the Earth and the origin of rocks, all types of rocks, but especially the granite ones found in New England. He tells of the bedrock layer that served as a solid barricade to keep eons of leaves, soil, and nutrients near the surface, as well as granite rocks that had once been forced up above the bedrock. To my surprise, I learned that the soil found by the original settlers in the 1600s - 1700s was fertile and rock-free. Stones in fields were never mentioned in diaries prior to the Revolutionary War.
But by 1800, as settlers had cleared forests for farm-able land, they exposed topsoil to the elements of rain, snow and frost causing run off of rich soil covering the granite trapped above the bedrock. With more soil washed away each year, farmers had to continually remove "potatoes" from their fields in order to plow.
Of course, these removed granite rocks had to be tossed somewhere, so the edges of the farmers' fields seemed a convenient place. This process of digging, loading onto a cart, hauling, and tossing of rocks dictated the perfect size field for farming: 2-4 acres. Any bigger and it would be too far and time-consuming to haul them away.
Eventually, the piles of stone were rearranged, carefully stacked and stretched over designated lines to become borders indicating ownership of fields. These walls were too low to hold in animals like sheep or cattle that could easily step over them, but they did serve as solid, if oft-disputed markers. By 1871, there were over 240,000 miles of walls in New England, taking about "forty million man days of efforts...to build them."
But shifting earth due to frost, settling of rocks in the wall, and gravity ate away at the walls, causing farmers to spend time repairing. Even mortared walls eventually gave way to the heaving ground during winter.
Thorson discusses factors that lead to the decline of the stone walls, including improved roads promoting migration, decline in oxen population (to haul rocks), and the opening of the great plains of the Midwest and the warmer climate of the west coast. Walls today are often found tumbled down and reclaimed by forests, or else picked apart by developers for re-use in modern properties.
Chock full of fascinating data about stones and walls, Stone By Stone carefully lays out how these walls changed farming, tools, human migration, and property ownership over the years. Walls affected environments, too, as they served as shelters and hiding places for animals, warm areas for plants, moss, and lichen to take hold, and warmed surrounding soil to transform the adjacent woodland ecosystem.
There's more to the aesthetic allure of stone walls than their memorial associations. Each is a work of art in and of itself. Every wall reflect personal -- in some cases artistic -- choices made by its builders, from the selection of location to the size, shape, and placement of each stone.A thoroughly enjoyable, informative book on so many level. Stone By Stone has my highest recommendations for a quality read.
Happy reading.
Fred
Fred
www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com
If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
Thorson, Robert M. Exploring Stone Walls: A Field Guide to New England's Stone Walls
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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
Thorson, Robert M. Exploring Stone Walls: A Field Guide to New England's Stone Walls
The next logical step after reading Stone By Stone is to visit the famous walls in New England, including Robert Frost's inspiration for "Mending Wall." With tips on how to understand a wall's history, age, and purpose.
