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THE CLEARING OF NEW LAND.

When additional land was required for cultivation the first step was to
go into the forest in summer and "deaden" or girdle the trees on a given
tract. This was cutting through the bark all around the trunk about
thirty inches from the ground. The trees so treated soon died and in a
year or two were in condition to be removed. The season selected for
clearing the land was winter, beginning with January. The trees, except
the larger ones, were cut down, cut into lengths convenient for handling
and piled into great heaps, called "log heaps," and burned. The
undergrowth was grubbed out and also piled and burned. The burning was
done at night and the sight was often weird and grand. The chopping was
done by the men slaves and the grubbing by women. All the trees that
blew down during the summer were left as they fell till winter when they
were removed. This went on, year after year, until all the trees were
cleared out. The first year after the new land was cleared corn was put
in, the next season cotton. As a rule corn and cotton were planted
alternately, especially if the land was poor, if not, cotton would be
continued year after year on the same land. Old corn stalks were always
plowed under for the next year's crop and they served as an excellent
fertilizer. Cotton was seldom planted on newly cleared land, as the
roots and stumps rendered it difficult to cultivate the land without
injury to the growing plant.

I never saw women put to the hard work of grubbing until I went to
McGee's and I greatly wondered at it. Such work was not done by women
slaves in Virginia. Children were required to do some work, it mattered