The abundance is so great that a flock of pigeons darkens the sky. Maps of this time period were limited to the coast as man did not explore to the west for quite some time. Man begins to associate particular trees with certain soil types as well as moisture levels. They associate certain trees with acidic soils and others with fertile land, perfect for agriculture. They organize these trees as patches among the forest.
Man eventually begins stripping forest for fields.
This process was very slow at the time, due to the low number of people inhabiting North America. Early colonists were misleading in two ways in their reports of the new world. First, they thought of the indians as poor and lazy, and second they reported New England as a land where little work was required for payoffs greater than that of England. The surviving colonists tried to set up work habits similar to those of England but to do this they had to rely on supplies from England for several years. What the English lacked was the knowledge possessed by the indians of how and where to find food in the surrounding environment.