Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BAR'REN, n.

1. In the States west of the Allegany, a word used to denote a tract of land, rising a few feet above the level of a plain, and producing trees and grass. The soil of these barrens is not barren, as the name imports, but often very fertile. It is usually alluvial, to a depth sometimes of several feet. – Atwater, Journ. of Science.
2. Any unproductive tract of land; as, the pine barrens of South Carolina. – Drayton.