Fieldstone is a building construction material. Strictly speaking, it is stone

Rock (geology)

In geology, rock or stone is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock. In general rocks are of three types, namely, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic...

 collected from the surface of fields

Field (agriculture)

In agriculture, the word field refers generally to an area of land enclosed or otherwise and used for agricultural purposes such as:* Cultivating crops* Usage as a paddock or, generally, an enclosure of livestock...

 where it occurs naturally. Collections of fieldstones which have been removed from arable land or pasture to allow for more effective agriculture

Agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

 are called clearance cairn

Clearance cairn

A Clearance Cairn is an irregular and unstructured collection of fieldstones which have been removed from arable land or pasture to allow for more effective agriculture and collected into a usually low mound or cairn. Commonly of Bronze Age origins, these cairns may be part of a cairnfield where...

s.

In practice, fieldstone is any architectural

Architecture

Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...

 stone used in its natural shape and can be applied to stones recovered from the topsoil

Topsoil

Topsoil is the upper, outermost layer of soil, usually the top to . It has the highest concentration of organic matter and microorganisms and is where most of the Earth's biological soil activity occurs.-Importance:...

 or subsoil

Subsoil

Subsoil, or substrata, is the layer of soil under the topsoil on the surface of the ground. The subsoil may include substances such as clay and/or sand that has only been partially broken down by air, sunlight, water, wind etc., to produce true soil...

. Although fieldstone is generally used to describe such material when used for exterior walls, it has come to include its use in other ways including garden

Garden

A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials. The most common form today is known as a residential garden, but the term garden has...

 features and interiors. It is sometimes cut or split for use in architecture.

Fieldstone on the High Plains

Fieldstone occurs extensively on the High Plains

High Plains

High Plains refers to one of two distinct land regions:*High Plains , land region of the western Great Plains*High Plains , land region adjacent to the Great Dividing Range...

 deposited during last glaciation

Pleistocene

The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....

. On or near the surface, they come in many colors, and are limited in size to about 4 feet in diameter, although larger rocks are sometimes recovered. Pretty and colorful, fieldstones are used occasionally as building materials; some of the more stately homes on the Prairies are constructed of fieldstone and are over a century old. However, fieldstone as a building material is very much underused.

Fieldstone in New England

Fieldstone has been abundant throughout New England

New England

New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

 and Eastern Canada since European settlers cleared the forests for timber. These logs were sent by sailing ships to England and Europe. When the virgin land was tilled the fields were littered with rocks that were moved to the edge of the fields and stacked in what has become a New England landmark called "Stone Walls". The stone walls were added to each spring when the fields were plowed as more stones were brought to the surface following the winter freeze and the spring thaw.

Fieldstone and farming

Widely disseminated on the prairie farms, fieldstone is an old nemesis of the farmer. Removing fieldstone is a considerable effort. Early pioneers made land suitable for farming by tediously removing it, stone by stone, since land with many rocks posed a serious risk of damage to machinery. Larger rocks hindered cultivation, and even a small rock picked up by a baler or a combine can wreck intake parts, causing hundreds of dollars in repairs and costly delays at harvest time. Land with many such fieldstones was and is considered marginal and is assessed for tax purposes well below land that is considered stone-free.
Washed and split, field rock is considered an attractive landscape and building material, and can be expensive at building supply stores. However, many a farmer would be glad to rid his fields of it, and it is often free for the asking.

Fieldstone removal

During early decades of Prairie settlement, fieldstone was removed by hand, often with whole families participating in this physically demanding task. Today fieldstone is usually removed by a tractor attachment called a rock picker, which is fairly efficient at rock removal. A chain-driven wheel rotates a graded scoop picking surface rocks from the soil, with excess soil being shaken away and the rock remaining. A hydraulic lift then tilts and empties the rock bucket, usually along the perimeter of the farm.

See also

• Dry-stone wall
• Earl Young (architect)
  Earl Young (architect)
  Earl A. Young was an American architect, realtor and insurance agent. Over a span of 52 years, he designed and built 31 structures in Charlevoix, Michigan but was never a registered architect. He worked mostly in stone, using limestone, fieldstone, and boulders he found throughout Northern Michigan...
  
  
• Stone wall
  Stone wall
  Stone walls are a kind of masonry construction which have been made for thousands of years. First they were constructed by farmers and primitive people by piling loose field stones in what is called a dry stone wall, then later with the use of mortar and plaster especially in the construction of...
  
  
• Stonemasonry
  Stonemasonry
  The craft of stonemasonry has existed since the dawn of civilization - creating buildings, structures, and sculpture using stone from the earth. These materials have been used to construct many of the long-lasting, ancient monuments, artifacts, cathedrals, and cities in a wide variety of cultures...
  
  
• Architecture
  Architecture
  Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...