In 1750, Baltimore County's colonial forests consisted of large tracts of mature trees broken by grassy openings called barrens, and timber harvesting was dangerous, backbreaking work done by axmen who limbed and cut trees to length before logs were dragged away on large two-wheeled carts by teams of oxen. Woodsmen valued a sharp axe because it saved both time and labor, and they used a practice called "driving the piece," in which one large felled tree brought down other previously notched trees like a line of dominoes. The axe long used in depleting Europe's forests was also used by Native Americans and colonists until about 1725, when colonial demand for a better cutting tool led to the American axe, a design still in use. Baltimore County's forests yielded food and wood products that supplied colonists with tools, furniture, toys, buildings, and many necessities and comforts, while firewood was cut more than any other product, with a typical household using 30 to 40 cords each year. Logs were turned into beams and boards for homes, barns, and other buildings by cutting trees to length, removing bark with a barking spud, moving logs to a trestle for sawing into planks, and squaring other logs into beams.