Stone walls, it is said by author Robert Thorson, are much easier to explore in January when the leaves are off the trees and bushes. “Like a negative to a photograph,” he says, “walls are most visible when life is most invisible.” I agree, and that’s why I do these stone wall posts in winter. But as you can see by the above photo, this post was made even easier by the lack of snow. Not only did a January thaw melt it all but the huge old pine trees overhead keep much of the snow off this particular wall, even in mid-winter.
Unusual about this spot are the parallel double walls with a space big enough between them for a horse drawn wagon or a cow herd to pass through with ease. None of the trees seen here would have been here when the wall was young. Tree seeds fell into or very near stone walls and grew and few people ever did anything about it.
I’m guessing that there were animals involved in the path through the double walls because holes were drilled into stones and steel rods inserted into them to increase the wall height by about a foot and a half. As the steel ground against the granite over the years the holes were made bigger so cut nails were driven in beside the rods to keep them straight. The cut nails seen here date the steel rods to sometime between 1800 and 1900, but the wall itself has been here since the mid-1700s.
Each steel rod has a flattened tip with a hole in it. The hole most likely had wire passed through it. This would have all been done by the local blacksmith.
If wire was passed through the hole in the rod it could have been used to hold up barbed wire. Barbed wire would have been used to keep animals from jumping the wall and it can be found strung all along it.
You can occasionally find cut stones on this wall. I think this rectangular example is a granite fence post that broke off at ground level and was thrown on top of the wall to get it out of the way. The most common stone walls in this area are “tossed walls.” Farmers worked from dawn to dusk in Colonial New England and tossed walls required the least amount of time and effort because smaller stones were literally tossed or thrown on top of one another. In the early years getting rid of the plentiful stones quickly and efficiently was more important than enclosing the fields and boy, did famers get rid of them. In 1872 there were an estimated 270,000 miles of stone walls in New England.
Rock greenshield lichens (Flavoparmelia baltimorensis) look like melted candle wax to me. They are very common in this area and are another of those bits of nature that you see so often they no longer register, but when you take the time to look closer you find that they are quite pretty. They must like it here because they cover entire lengths of this wall.
In the story books of my childhood the stones in stone walls were all colors including blue, orange and yellow, so I knew right off that whoever wrote the books had never seen anything built of stone because, as everybody knew, stones were gray. As I grew older and started paying closer attention to the world around me I realized once again that I didn’t know what I was talking about because, as whoever illustrated those books knew, stones could indeed come in many colors. Usually in this area only the oldest stone walls are colored in this way, and of course what grows on them depends on exposure, so they may not be as wonderfully colorful as this one.
The yellow color in the previous photo comes from sulfur dust lichen (Chrysothrix chlorina.) It’s a very soft, pale yellow and hides under overhangs so it doesn’t get rained on. At least I think that’s why I always find it tucked away like this, but this is odd behavior for a lichen because they usually like a lot of rain and sunshine.
The white on this tree is caused by a lichen called, appropriately enough, whitewash lichen (Phlyctis argena.) This lichen is usually found on the bark of hardwood trees and is fairly common. It makes the tree look as if it has been painted white, and that’s where its common name comes from. They can be greenish white, silvery, or bright white as this one is.
I saw a stone with a forest of pixie cup lichens (Cladonia asahinae) on it. The tiny little golf tee shaped parts are the fruiting bodies of this lichen. Spores produced in them will be splashed out of the cup by raindrops. Pixie cups almost always produce large groups of fruiting bodies like these.
I saw some pixie cup shapes that were unusual; the one on the left is a double one, with two cups grown together. The one on the right has one cup growing out of another. I don’t know if this is common behavior or not but I haven’t ever seen it.
Here was a large stone covered by a carpet of Hedwigia ciliata moss. This moss is common and is also called white tipped moss.
The white leaf tips drawn out to long, fine points help confirm the identity of Hedwigia ciliata moss. It’s one of those mosses that you almost have to run your hand over.
Because it’s so warm near stone walls in the winter many plants like this mullein (Verbascum thapsus) like to grow along them. In fact there is an amazing variety of plants growing on or near this wall. Native Americans used tea made from mullein’s large, gray green furry leaves to treat asthma and other respiratory ailments. It is also said to be useful as a relaxant and sleep aid.
Bristly or swamp dewberry (Rubus hispidus) is a trailing vine blooms with white flowers that look a lot like strawberry flowers. The fruit looks more like a black raspberry than anything else and is said to be very sour. Its leaves usually live under the snow all winter but these exposed examples were beautifully colored purple. It is thought that staying green through the winter lets evergreen plants begin photosynthesizing earlier in the spring so they get a head start over the competition, and this plant certainly seems to benefit from it. Swamp dewberry looks like a vine but is actually considered a shrub. It likes wet places and is a good indicator of wetlands, but I’ve seen it growing in dry waste areas many times. It’s also called bristly blackberry because its stem is very prickly.
It was no surprise to find the European Vinca (Vinca minor) growing in the wall, because in the 1800s Vinca was a plant given by one neighbor to another along with lilacs and peonies, and I’ve seen all three still blooming beautifully off in the middle of nowhere. They grow thickly together and sometimes form an impenetrable mat that other plants can’t grow through. It has been here long enough to have erased any memories of it having once crossed the Atlantic on the deck of a wooden ship, and people like it. Another name for it is Myrtle.
The beautiful blue of first year black raspberry canes (Rubus occidentalis) is always a welcome sight in the winter. The blue color is caused by the way light is reflected off the powdery, waxy white crystals that cover the canes. The crystals are there to protect the young canes from moisture loss and sunburn and many other plants including blueberries, plums, grapes and blue stemmed goldenrod also use the same strategy. The color is often like that of a blue jay.
There are some very old white pine trees (Pinus strobus) here. I’d guess this one had to be approaching 300 years old. It was huge and had deeply furrowed bark. Sometimes I lay my hands against great trees like this one to feel their power. The power of creation just seems to hum through them like an engine.
My grandfather was the town blacksmith for years in Westmoreland, New Hampshire and the old wrought iron hardware I sometimes find in stone walls always makes me think of him. A blacksmith might make a dollar a day in the early 1800s but very little cash changed hands in colonial America, so he most likely would have been paid in food, charcoal for the forge, lumber, or something else he needed. I’d guess my grandfather made more than a colonial blacksmith, but probably not by much. The ring seen here most likely held a chain.
Since history and botany are my favorite subjects it all comes together for me here, and on the historical side of things this chain hook is one of my favorite bits of antique iron work that I find here. A link from a chain would have been hooked over it and then another link hooked over a similar hook a certain distance away. Chains were (and are) often hung across roads or driveways as a way to say “no admittance.” What I like about this example is the way the blacksmith tapered the hook over its length and finally ended it in what looks like a dragon’s tail. He didn’t have to make such a utilitarian object as beautiful as a dragon’s tail, but he did. It’s a beautiful thing which, if I owned it, would be considered a work of art.
Stones are all about time—time to find them, to move them, to place them, and time, occasionally, to chisel and shape them. And above all, time to see them, experience them, and fall under their spell. ~Charles McRaven
Thanks for coming by.
I love the rock walls in NH and Maine and the history behind them! Fascinating to see the lichen too.
We certainly have plenty of both!
Ack! Late to the party again! Part of the pleasure of retirement is not worrying over much about what day of the week it is. 😊
Love the quote! I’ve had an affinity for rocks/stones for as long as I can remember. Those walls are just wonderful in so many ways and it’s clear you thoroughly enjoy them as well, Allen. Western Maryland, where I live, is quite a rocky area. When prepping new garden beds I can’t sink a spade into the ground without it going “clunk” when it hits rocks at 2″ down. I could probably build a wall myself, heh heh. Is it like that in your yard too?
Don’t worry about being late Ginny. You really didn’t miss much.
I can’t wait to not have to care what day it is!
Yes, this entire area is nothing but stones of all sizes and it’s a rare thing to be able to dig or till without hitting them!
Every one of your posts is a learning experience, but this one is especially so with the history added. The comments contribute to learning as well. Thank you for taking the tremendous amount of time it must take to crease one of your posts and know that we read, learn, and become more aware of nature because of you. 🙂
You’re welcome and thank you Judy. That’s exactly what I do this blog for-to get people interested.
I love those old New England stone walls. The whitewash lichen is a new one to me. Thank you for the introduction to it!
You’re welcome Lavinia. if you see a tree that looks like someone painted it white, that’s whitewash lichen.
They actually do paint the lower trunks white on some trees here. I’ve seen it done in walnut groves and sometimes fruit trees. I have always assumed it was to prevent winter freeze-thaw cracking.
I’ve never heard of that but I’d guess you were right. White paint would reflect a lot of sunlight away from the trunk.
A fine post! Stone walls are a wonderful legacy we have here in New England.
Thank you Eliza, I agree!
As a child, I took for granted all the stone walls in NH, but I so appreciate their beauty, function, and history now. Thank you for sharing!
You’re welcome, I did the same!
January 23, 2020
Allen, we had old lichen-covered stone walls in the San Francisco East Bay area where I lived and hiked for many years. Many people have speculated on their origin.
I, like Jeff Fentress, also an archeologist, believe they were built for agricultural purposes. https://youtu.be/OMISe8MKVC4
I pondered over these rock walls in 1996 on hikes during visits after my retirement in ’94. Because they would often form three-sided enclosures with many acres on the steep slopes of grass-covered hills, I concluded then that they were used not for property lines, but rather for clearing land of rocks, letting more grass grow, making movement of both sheep and sheepherder easier, and rotating sheep between pastures.
I did a little internet digging on speculation about these walls. One source said that a study of the lichens concluded that the walls were built between 1850 and 1880. I saw no link for it, but the date range sounds about right to me.
Before the Gold Rush in 1849, the Spanish before 1821 and Mexicans afterward ran “cattle on a thousand hills” (title of a book by Robert Glass Cleland and a phrase from the Bible). California was “filled with cattle” according to Richard Henry Dana who visited it in 1835 and then wrote his famous book “Two Years Before the Mast.
As Americans moved into and settled the West all the way to California they often replaced their open range predecessors’ cattle with sheep. Not surprisingly, it caused the infamous “range wars” because the cattleman knew that sheep could destroy a pasture by grazing the grass too low. The Mexican element among them relied on sheep and they were known for their skill with rock constructions.
So, the idea is that first you have open range and then, as more people move in, you build fences for your livestock–rock first, even Osage Orange in the plains and prairies, and barbed-wire everywhere after 1870. I think that this process was going on in the eastern part of the San Francisco Bay area as people gave up on making a fortune in gold and turned mainly to sheep for their livelihood like they do here in southern Chile. I have both sheep and cattle on my property. They get along and I don’t have to worry too much about grass because I live in a rainforest.
I don’t know about the origin of your rock walls in NH, Allen, but maybe it was just a way to clear land of rocks (I did such work on a Missouri farm on the weekends back in ’65 when I wasn’t digging at the Rodgers Rockshelter site), grow crops, rotate livestock, and delineate roads and property boundaries. Given the earlier Anglo-American settlement history in your area, I suspect they were doing this long before 1850.
Ron
On Wed, Jan 22, 2020, 6:10 AM New Hampshire Garden Solutions New Hampshire Garden Solutions posted: ” Stone walls, it is said by author > Robert Thorson, are much easier to explore in January when the leaves are > off the trees and bushes. “Like a negative to a photograph,” he says, > “walls are most visible when life is most invisible.” I agree, and that’s > w” >
Thank you Ron. Yes, the early settlers were building stone walls here in the 1700s, and they did it to get rid of all the stones they found in the fields they were trying to clear. A plow cost a lot to fix so hitting a stone with one wasn’t a good idea! As near as I can tell the wall in this post is from the mid 1700s, which is when the town was being settled. Because this land is so hilly and stony most pasture land was for sheep.
I didn’t know they had stone walls in California but I’ve seen photos of the lichens out there and they’re gorgeous. Lichens can be used to date stones, it is said. In lichenometry “lichen growth is used to determine the age of exposed rock based on a presumed specific rate of increase in radial size over time.”
That’s really far back!
I have found that certain lichens will cover rocks and wood that I and others have moved and cut in only a decade or two. Not sure what species, but it makes the objects look very old when they are not.
Yes, the town was settled in 1733 but the Natives burned it, so it was re-settled in 1747. I’m sure the walls date that far back or even farther if land was being cleared before the settlement was lived in daily. Most came up from Massachusetts then.
I know what you mean about the quick growth of lichens but others can be quite slow. I’d guess some of the lichens on the wall in this post have taken hundreds of years to reach such large sizes.
Well, you know lichens better than I.
With my Italian father and grandfather as sculptors, a blacksmith daughter, and a 1790 farmhouse enclosed by stone walls, your post was especially meaningful for me. And thank you for seeing the curving dragon tail art — I wouldn’t be surprised if the rest of the creature broke from his stone confinement someday. (Hope his torching capabilities are muted.) Maybe he and the old white pine have been conversing through the years.
Alan please write a book!
Thank you Lynne. You have an interesting family, much like my own by the sounds of it.
I’ve never met a dragon but I have felt the power of trees many times!
There is a book planned for after I retire, which will be in a couple of years.
Loved the quote you chose today.
Thank you Susan, I’m glad you liked it.