1.   Instead they had to settle for stony soil and harsh New England winters.

2.   Out of these dense woodlands and this stony soil sprang hardy folk of firm principles.

3.   The black majority ekes out a living in overcrowded tracts of stony soil.

4.   The villagers are learning to set up poultry farms and to use farming techniques that will let them coax at least one annual crop from the stony soil.