The area north of the closest wooded hammock was once farmland and cattle pasture. In Maryland's earliest days, Janes Island was much like it is now, though somewhat larger, with little wooded acreage and only small tracts suitable for farming. The land was poor, and more than 100 years passed before most of the island was actually claimed. Farmers dug ditches to mark property boundaries and drain the low fields, piling the removed soil beside them into berms that also helped protect farmland and homes from unusually high storm tides. Over time, storms and tides inundated the island, and the farmland and pasture gradually became marshland. Although the farms disappeared, the ditches and berms remained, showing old boundaries and how hard residents worked to protect their homes and property. Other berms also remain on the island, especially in the southwest portion, where part of a berm once protected an orchard that was already threatened by saltwater encroachment by 1849.