Photograph by Department of Forestry: Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station
Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center Forestry Image Collection

Most forests were cleared with manual labor, the result of a long, hard, and gradual process spanning multiple years. The method commonly practiced in Ohio was to chop down the trees. Clear-cutting, despite being an arduous task, left a field relatively free for agricultural activities for a few years and kept a field clear, provided cultivation was in place to prevent the regrowth of forest.