forests was having a more general effect on the climate. The anonymous author of A True Guide to Prince Edward Island stated in 1808 that ”the winters have been much warmer within the last fifteen or twenty years, and are still becoming more temperate, owing, it is supposed, to the quantity of wood cleared away"32‘; while twenty years later, John MacGregor (1828) in similar vein said that based on ”the observations of old people who have lived fifty or sixty years in America, . . there is no doubt that the climate has become much milder, and that the duration of the winter is much shorter”, th0ugh he himself considered that it was ’doubtful’ that this effect could be

attributed to the removal of the woods.

'WOOD PASTURING' OF LIVESTOCK

An important function of the forest, especially during the pioneer phase of settlement, was the provision of sustenance for the livestock of the farm in the form of ’wood pasture'm. Many recorders noted that it was the common practice to turn the farm animals out to range freely in the woods surrounding the farm, a practice that is attested throughout the period. This was necessitated by the scarcity of pasture on a pioneer farm, especially on farms away from the coastal marshes and dunes — for as John Stewart (1806) pointed out, there was not enough land ”within the fences to maintain the cattle”. In fact the principal function of fences on a pioneer farm was to keep the animals out of the cleared arable rather than to fence them in.323

It seems that except for the winter months cattle

were allowed to range freely in the woods”,

32‘ Anon. 1808.

322 ‘Wood pasture' is the term used for this very ancient practice in the British Isles (see Rackham 1986, pp. 119-120). Since the wild progenitors of cattle and pigs were forest animals, their domestic descendants have always readily taken to woodland, and though the sheep is not by origin a forest animal, it seems to have been able to adapt to lighter woodland, both on the island and in the British Isles. Domesticated horses, however, seem not to take to woodland — as exemplified by Hill’s (1839) observation that “they dread being alone in the forest at any time".

3’23 MacGregor (1828) stated that one of the first tasks of the pioneer farmer was to make “a fence of logs to keep off the cattle and sheep",

32‘ The wood-pasturing of cattle is mentioned by M’Robert (1776), [Cambridge] (1796?), Selkirk (1803, 1805), Stewart (1806), Johnstone (1822), MacGregor (1828), Lewellin (1832), Anon. (1836) and Lawson (1851).

52

Stewart (1806) observing that many farmers did not house their cattle until the end of December, and that some even stayed out in the woods ”3 great part of the winter living like deer by browzing upon the young wood". Cambridge (1796?) stated that cattle could find sufficient food in the woods in the summer and autumn, and that if the calves were penned up the cows would come home regularly to be milked.32$ Selkirk (1805) however, considered that though there might indeed be a sufficiency of food in the woods for the ‘young stock’, it was not so for the older cattle, the result being that ”the produce of the dairy [was] inconsiderable, and the full aged cattle not well fattened”.326 Lewellin (1832) also considered that as the number of cattle on the island increased they would be less able to be supported in the woods. It is in fact hard to believe that cattle, as well as sheep, would have been able to sustain themselves from the ground vegetation of the island’s old—growth forests, especially the upland hardwood forest with its comparatively sparse ground cover.327 The explanation may in part be that along with the settlers came forest fire, so that in many of the areas with new 'wood farms’ there would also have been a greater amount of more open successional woodland in various stages of recovery after fire, that would have had a greater ground cover for livestock to feed on.328 Also with settlement came tree-felling and Johnstone (1823) informs us that the cattle were very keen browzers on the tops of the felled trees, especially during the winter period.329 We might also expect

325 I note that Anon. (1836) mentions the cattle being driven out

of the wood in summer by the flies. ”6 MacGregor (1828) (p. 56, not extracted) also considered that “ranging at large (as almost all the cattle are allowed to do)", plus poor winter feeding, led to low butter and cheese production.

327 As Rackham (1986) (p. 119) points out for forests in general, “the more trees there are, the less abundant and the worse will be the pasture”. He notes some of the problems for livestock feeding in woodland: “They are fond of the leaves of most trees but cannot climb for them. Little sustenance is to be got from woodland herbs, many of which are poisonous or distasteful. Grasses that grow in shade are so attenuated as to be hardly worth eating."

328 In fact, the “production of grass and herbage for depasturing cattle" was one of the benefits of fire in woodland listed in an act passed by the island's Assembly in 1773 (House Assembly 1773- 1849).

3” Johnstone (1822) (p. 135-36). Since I did not extract the passage in the source—book | quote it here in full: “In a calm day [in the winter period] [the cattle] will make their way into the woods in search of newly felled trees, in order to brouse upon their tops; and when they hear the sound of an axe, they hasten to the spot, and crowd so close around the man that is using it, that they are in danger of being killed by the falling of the trees. Indeed I was told