Infertile to Protected

We have talked a good amount about why farming failed in the Adirondacks. The reasons for this agricultural failure are manifold, including thin soil, early frost, not optimal size of soil, high variability of soils, the acidic soil and so on. If all of these factors add up to land that the colonists deemed inhospitable and downright bad, it begs the question what is good land? I think the answer to this question changes with time and social constructions of what is good, but in the days of the European settlers of Northeastern America good land was agriculturally productive land. This seems to be true for most western, capitalist societies but there are and were philosophies that value other lands such as sacred lands of Native American tribes or extremely manicured and balanced gardens in many Asian cultures. In these examples both the sacred land and the garden, as well as agriculturally productive land, require human protection and maintenance to some degree. I find it very interesting and impressive that the Adirondacks, which had been deemed infertile and impassable for so long, rose to a similar level of human appreciation as farm land and sacred land to receive man's protection and maintenance.