Rock picking is every farmer’s springtime misery. During the winter as the earth freezes and thaws, rocks rise to the surface of the fields; they must be removed before plowing can proceed. Stacked at the edges of the fields, they are the raw material for stone walls. A great amount of human strength went into the building of these walls. Each stone wall was prepared by a trench a foot wider than the top stones, and two feet deep for the foundation. These stone walls would not be standing today if not for these underground bases. A good stone wall is said to last a couple of hundred years, and if a soldier had enough ammunition he could hold out there for nearly as long.

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