writers, such as Judge James Peters (1851), proscribed remedies to counteract this, remedies usually involving the application of animal or green manures of various types.170

At the same time there were soils that were perceived to differ markedly from the norm, and which were viewed as having limited potential for conversion to agriculture; these soils, as we have seen, were usually signaled by the presence of the various types of coniferous forest, and they also occurred in the areas occupied by the ’barrens’ and the ’swamps’ (land-types which, as we have noted, may overlap with poor coniferous forest). MacGregor (1828) in his soil description went on to refer briefly to some of these ’exceptional’ soils:

There are only a few exceptions to this general structure of the soil: these are the bogs or swamps, the formation of which is either a soft spungy turf or a layer of black mould resting on a bed of white clay or sand.

And 'sand’ or ’sandy’ are words that frequently come up in the descriptions of these poorer soils: this is so in some of the land classifications in Table 3, where the 'worst land' (always under some type of coniferous forest), is described as a ’sand' or as 'sandy’ by several recorders‘“. As well, sandy soils were perceived to especially characterize the swamps and the barrens‘”, with Johnstone (1822) further distinguishing the swamps from the barrens by the presence of a lower clay layer impervious to water, that inhibited drainage.173

Finally, I should note that the sand in island soils was perceived by some recorders to often occur

17" So also Johnstone (1822) and Gesner (1846) (not extracted).

They (as well as Peters) also make reference to the use of ‘mussel-mud' to maintain soil fertility.

‘7‘ See in Table 3: Selkirk's (1803) land under ‘spruce' and 'pine', Stewart’s (1806) “worst land", Johnstone’s (1822) “worst soil", and Hill's (1839) "soils hardly worth cultivating". In addition, a witness to the Land Commission (1860) (T. H. Haviland senior, the proprietor of Lot 56 and part of Lot 43) connected the presence of "juniper and spruce" with a "white sandy soil" on land in those lots “scarcely capable of cultivation".

"2 Sandy soils are associated with the barrens in general by Johnstone (1822), MacGregor (1828), James Yeo in evidence to the Land Commission (1860), and Bain (1890), and with a particular barren in Lot 47 by James Robertson in evidence to the Land Commission (1875). They are associated with the swamps by Johnstone (1822), MacGregor (1828) and Bain (1890).

173 To quote Johnstone‘s actual words: "The ground is all of a swampy nature; that is, a soil with much of the white sand upon the surface, and a red clay below, of such an adhesive nature as not to allow the wet to get down to a proper depth".

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as a white ’bed’ in the soil (we would now use the term ’horizon’). Johnstone went so far as to say that such a layer was ”spread over the surface of the whole island””‘1 — though it was seen to be most pronounced in the poorer soils associated with the swamps and barrens.”5 ‘76 Of course what he was noting was the upper leached horizon of what we now call a 'podzol’, a soil-type widely distributed in northern temperate regions in both North America and Eurasia, which is by far the predominant soil-type of the island.177

Wind-storms causing tree destruction — In recent decades it has been recognised that major wind storms, including hurricanes, have played an important role in the dynamics of forests along the eastern seaboard of North America, though probably less so in the Maritime provinces than in the forests farther south.178 We have, however, a recent example of such an event on the island in the form of hurricane Juan of September 2003, which brought down a large number of amenity trees in the Charlottetown urban area. Are there historical records for such catastrophic events having an effect on the natural forests of the island in the past? Because such storms are likely

m I note that Gesner (1846) (not extracted) also said that

“frequently a thin stratum of white sand is turned up by the plough". ”5 Johnstone (1822) said that the white sand was “so fine as almost to resemble white clay", while Stewart (1806) called it "a strong white clay”. Both associated it especially with the swamps, and Stewart noted that it was also observed in the banks along the shore. Similarly, MacGregor (1828) referred to “a bed of white clay or sand" that he also connected with the swamps; while at the end of the century Bain (1890) also associated his “heavy clay soils" with the swamps (though he omitted to describe the colour). Another reference to a white sand layer occurs in Selkirk’s (1803) description of the soil at a spot at Pinette as “a white sand at top, but red below“, while Sir George Seymour (1840), the proprietor of Lot 13, described the barrens on that lot as having “a hopeless white soil" though he did not describe the texture.

’76 I note that in a submission to the British government

(Proprietors 1837) a group of proprietors make the interesting statement that “there are large tracts in Prince Edward Island, known by the names of black-spruce, and other swamps, white sands and barrens (my italics)", implying that “white sands“ was the name of a land—type on the island - though this is the only record for it that I have come across.

”7 From MacDougall ef al. (1988), it is evident that practically all or

the soils of the island are either of the "podzol great group", or of other related soil-types that also have an upper leached whitish horizon.

‘78 For examples of wind effects on the forests of the temperate

zone in general, see Peterken (1996) (pp. 62-63, 88-91, 169-70, 328-335). In the nearest scientific study to the island (in north- eastern Maine), Lorimer (1977) found that on a given site a large- scale wind-throw event was likely to occur at an interval of 1,150 years. Also Dwyer (1979) provides an introductory historical review of tree-damaging storm events in Nova Scotia. while Johnson (1986) (Chapter 49) reviews forest damage in that province between the 19505 and the 19705.