Clearing the Land.

When Americans first moved west of the Appalachians, they found trees—mile after mile of vast forests stretching all the way to the Great Plains. If they had been in North America long, they were used to felling trees; it was the first thing they did when they settled a new piece of western land. Farmers cleared an area for fields by cutting, burning, and girdling (cutting a large ring around a tree trunk so it would later die). Most farmers then planted corn, the staple crop of the first settlers because of its high yield. Like the Indians, pioneers fished and hunted and sometimes planted beans and squash. White settlers arrived with their livestock and preferred pigs because free-range swine required little labor and provided a wide variety of meat products.

Agricultural Improvements.

After clearing and planting...