HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
 

711
 

CHAPTER   XLVI.
 

CLEARING LAND;  FARMING;  DEESS;  MODE OF LIVING,  &c.
 

County heavily timbered.—Land cleared.—Labors of men and women.—Primitive
farming.—Horse trains.—Meadow land.—Golden age.—Grand religious festival.
—Indian corn.—Produce carried to Philadelphia.—Privit-hedge.—Settlers lived
well.—Luxuries introduced.—Professor Kalm's account.—Costume.—The fash¬
ions.—Social customs.—Marriage.—Manners.—Spinning-wheels.—Price of land
and produce.—Wages.

Bucks county washeaAdly timbered i at its settlement, and a o-ood
deal of the land was cleared by co-operative labor. On a given day
a number of neighbors Avould assemble, armed Avith grubbino-dioes
and other implements, the ground Avas staked ofi', and at a signal
they fell to Avork Avith a spirit, grubbing up the saplings Avith great
skilh They AA^ere felled Avith the tops together, so that they could
be more easily fired. The trees AA^ere girdled and left to fall in
course of time, when the trunks AA^ere rolled together and burned.
The bodies and branches of the saplings were hauled off", but the
ground AA^as plowed with the trees standing. The log-rollino* Avas
made another season of fun and frolic. At these times the amount
of labor done was prodigious, Avhich the descendants of the early
settlers are hardly equal to. A great deal of the other hard labor
of that day  was done by companies, Avliich made the heaviest job

1 DeVries, who sailed up the Delaware in 1631, says the trees on the banks were
not close together, and there was very little underwood. At that earlv dav the Indi¬
ans cultivated corn, peas, and bean>?, and grapes grew wild along the river.