Forest & Farm
As the land was cleared for farming, the chestnut, walnut and other trees provided wood for building small houses, fences, barns, furniture, tools, and for firewood. The wood was so abundant it was even used for charcoal to smelt local bog iron into metal for blacksmiths. The Falls River sawmill turned wood into usable lumber, and a local grist mill built at the head of the Pochoug River turned wheat and corn into flour and meal. Farmers planted orchards for cider and harvested salt hay for their cows.
As their Indian corn, pumpkin, squash and English wheat pushed up through the soil the farmers began to think about exchanging their surplus crops and lumber for things they could not grow or make themselves. They thought about trade.