The first job on a new farm was not planting. It was making a place where planting might eventually be possible.
Across much of early settled Ontario and eastern Canada, newcomers faced standing timber, tangled roots, wet ground and fields studded with stones. In some districts, the soil also contained glacial till: a dense, unsorted mixture of clay, silt, sand, gravel and rocks left behind by glaciers. A farmer could turn up stones with every pass of the plough, and frost could heave more toward the surface over time.
The work was done in stages. Settlers cut trees by hand, limbed and moved timber, burned some of the brush and waste wood, and worked small patches while stumps still stood. Oxen and horses supplied the pulling power. A collection of plain-looking tools helped make that exhausting work possible.
Axes, teams and the first clearing
Axes did the cutting. After felling trees, settlers used teams of oxen or horses to move useful logs and clear debris. Much of the remaining wood could be burned, and some accounts describe the ash being saved and spread on the soil.
Clearing did not mean every stump vanished at once. Early families often opened only enough ground for a cabin, garden and first crops. A stump could be left to decay, worked around or pulled later when time, animals and equipment allowed. In the Osgoode Township account of early settlement, a homemade stump-jumper plough let an ox team break rough ground while the farmer lifted the plough over roots and stumps.
That is an important detail: the first ploughing often happened in an unfinished field. The farmer and team had to navigate the obstacles, rather than waiting for a perfectly cleared field.
The stone boat: a low sled for heavy rocks
A stone boat was a flat, low platform—often built from wood—dragged across the ground by horses or oxen. Its low profile made it easier to roll or lift stones onto than a high-sided wagon. Once loaded by hand, the team hauled the stones to a field edge, pile, fence line or other disposal spot.
It was a practical answer to a recurring problem. In glacial till country, the first stone-picking could not always be the last. Ploughing and frost could expose more rocks, so farmers might repeat the job over many seasons. A stone boat was especially handy for short hauls; for longer distances, a low wagon could be more efficient.
The name makes it sound like a boat, but it travelled over land. Its broad sliding surface spread the load and avoided the need for large wheels that could sink or get caught in rough ground.
Stump pullers: turning leverage into lifting power
Tree stumps were a different challenge. Their roots held tightly in the soil, and digging them out by hand could consume enormous time and effort. Early mechanical stump and stone pullers used a sturdy frame—often a tripod—with a screw, chain and human or animal power. The chain was wrapped around the stump or boulder; turning the screw increased the lifting force.
The puller did not make the job easy. It gave the team leverage. The frame had to be set securely, the chain attached, and the stump loosened without breaking the equipment or injuring the people and animals nearby. Later designs used horses to turn the mechanism and wheeled frames that could be moved around a field.
Because stump pullers were not available to every family at the start, stumps were often left in place or tackled gradually. The tool marks a shift from simply living around the obstacles to removing them more systematically.
Stump-jumper ploughs: working around what remained
A stump-jumper plough was designed for rough, uncleared ground. The historical example documented in the Ottawa area was a homemade wooden implement pulled slowly by oxen. The operator could lift it as the team approached a stump or major root, then set it back into the soil beyond the obstruction.
This was not a modern spring-loaded stump-jump plough. It was a basic, locally made answer to a field that was only partly cleared. It let a farmer begin breaking the soil before every stump had been removed.
Ditches and drainage: making wet ground usable
Clearing trees and stones did not solve every problem. In low-lying or poorly drained areas, water could leave fields too wet to work reliably. Small ditches could be dug by hand; later, plough-type ditchers and larger traction machines helped cut drainage channels and trenches for tile drains.
The timeline matters. Powered ditching machines were part of a later wave of agricultural improvement, particularly around the turn of the twentieth century. Ontario’s Department of Agriculture began a provincial land-drainage program in 1905, and steam traction ditchers were used to dig trenches for drainage tile and open ditches. These machines were not the first settlers’ everyday clearing tools, but they extended the process of transforming land after the initial forest and stump work.
Drainage also depended on local conditions, slope and a suitable outlet. A ditch could not simply be placed anywhere and expected to work; water needed a path away from the field.
A field was made one stubborn obstacle at a time
Pioneer field clearing was not one dramatic act. It was a long sequence: fell trees, move timber, burn or use the brush, break the soil where possible, haul stones, pull stumps and improve drainage. Each tool solved one part of the problem.
The stone boat carried what the plough uncovered. The stump puller turned animal or human effort into lifting force. The stump-jumper plough let cultivation begin before the field was finished. Ditching equipment dealt with water that trees and rock removal could not fix.
A cleared field was therefore not simply a forest without trees. It was the result of years of work—and often a continuing negotiation with stones, roots and water.
Sources and further reading
- Land Clearing, Agriculture Canada / Government of Canada Publications (1946 edition) — Canadian guidance on timber, stumps, stone removal, drainage, machinery and preparing land for crops.
- Lang Pioneer Village Museum: Sources of Power — description of early tripod-style stump and stone pullers and the later use of horses.
- Community Stories: Early settlement and land clearing in Osgoode Township — local account of axes, oxen, burning, rough ploughing and a stump-jumper plough.
- Maryboro Lodge Museum: The History of Horse Pulls — account of stone boats, field stones and repeated stone picking in the Kawartha region.
- Ontario Ministry of Agriculture: Glacial till — description of the compact mixture of boulders, gravel, sand, silt and clay in glacial till.
- Ingenium Collection: Buckeye Steam Traction Ditcher — Canadian context for steam ditchers used in Ontario’s land-drainage program.
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