from off the island (as it is today), as is indicated by one recorder in 1902 who wrote that ”we are obliged to import today all our lumber"‘“2.

FENCES AND FENCING MATERIALS

From the first creation of a clearing in the forest, fences were an important functional component of every island farm. Throughout the whole colonial period and well into the twentieth century virtually everything used in their construction came from the forest.“43 In the pioneer period, fences were used to exclude the livestock from the cleared farmland, the animals being turned out to roam freely in the surrounding forest.444 Within the cultivated area there were initially no fences, Walter Johnstone observing in 1822 that the fences occurred ”betwixt farm and farm alongst the shores, and between the clear ground and the woods”, adding that ”they have not begun to sub- divide their ground any where”, this latter statement being repeated ten years later by John Lewellin.445 Later on, as land clearance became more general, fences were used to confine livestock to the farm area and to control their location and movements on the farm, and indeed laws were enacted to prevent the roaming of livestock at large.“‘16 Fences were also used for

442

Burke 1902. “3 Knox (1980) (pp. 23—24), in an article on island fences in The Island Magazine, states that post-and-wire fences only came into use on the island around World War |. A relevant comment from the time is that of Wightman (1912) (p. 5), who said that “though wire fences are becoming somewhat prevalent, the old rail fence, in different forms is still in general use [in the Maritimes].

4“ This function of fences in keeping the livestock out of the farmed area is explicit in the statements of several recorders: Selkirk (1803) said that “cattle are allowed the range of the woods but if they were confined to a spot [by fences] they would browze everything”; Stewart (1806) said that someday “the settlers [would be able] to get enough cleared lands within their fences, to maintain their cattle, without being under the necessity of allowing them to roam at large, as is too much the case at present”; Johnstone (1822) (p. 99, not extracted) said that a particular type of fencing, being not strong enough, was “little practiced but around gardens, or on public roadsides, where the cattle from the woods are not likely to make their severest attacks"; MacGregor (1828) said that fences were required to “keep off the cattle and sheep, which are allowed to range at large"; Anon. (1836) said: "in [July] we strengthen the fences, as the cattle are now strong and driven out of the woods by the flies”.

“5 Johnstone 1822; Lewellin 1832. Lewellin‘s actual words were: “few farms have any subdivision fences”.

“6 I have looked only in passing at the fencing laws of the period. Another incentive for putting a fence around a farm was to assert ownership over the timber: Mr. Hockin, a tenant farmer on Lot 3 told the Land Commission (1860) that a timber contractor, (James Yeo is specifically mentioned) could authorise anyone to

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aesthetic reasons, especially in Charlottetown”, and by the late 1870s even in rural areas, as is evident from many of the illustrations in ’Meacham's Atlas', fencing was no longer entirely functional, with a high proportion of farms (at least of those paying to have a ’view’ published in the atlas) having board fences along roadsides, and picket fences, sometimes elaborate, around the house and garden.448 And all of these fences were made out of wood, most of which would have come from the island’s forests.

Early pioneer fences — During the period when forest clearance was still ongoing on the farm, it is evident that fencing was viewed as an integral part of the land clearance operations449; and during and immediately after clearing, livestock were excluded from the newly cleared area by using some of the materials left over from the clearance operations themselves. As evidence for this practice we have John MacGregor's (1828) description of how some of the ’large logs' resulting from the tree-felling were ”rolled away for fencing stuff" — presumably to the edge of the cleared area where they could act as a barrier to keep the animals out. Later, when he mentions ”a fence of logs, to keep off the cattle and the sheep”, he may have had in mind this first rough

barrier, and it may also be this type of fence that

cut timber on any leasehold farm land that was outside the farm‘s fences.

“7 Even as early as the 17705 there were elaborate decorative fences in Charlottetown: Benjamin Chappell was occupied over an extended period between 29 October 1778 and 24 July 1779 in making an elaborate ‘Chinees' fence for the ‘Governor' - in fact for acting governor Phillips Callbeck. In the same period he was also employed for one day (22 April 1779), in "mending the pales before Sq[uire] Patterson’s house" (i.e. that of Governor Walter Patterson, who was on an extended leave of absence in England) (Chappell 1775-1818).

“a It is a question as to how accurate the details of the fencing are in the ‘views' printed in the ‘Meacham's Atlas' (Allen 1880). From my examination of the variety of fences shown, I believe that they are accurate as to the fence-type shown at a particular location, though the artist has had to adopt specific conventions for representing the different types of fences, and thus the fine details may not be accurate (for example, three or four rails at most are only ever shown in a snake fence).

“9 Hill (1839), in discussing the costs of creating a new farm in the forest, listed fencing as the fourth step connected with forest clearance: “cutting down, chopping up, and burning and fencing“. Similarly, James Aithur, postmaster at New Glasgow, in evidence to a Committee of the House of Assembly in 1841 (Anon. 1841, p. 84), when asked the cost of hiring someone to clear 30 acres of hardwood for a farm over a ten year period, included fencing as pan of the operations: ‘Cutting down per acre - £1/10; Piling and burning - £1; Fencing - 10/; Stumping - £1/5; Clearing off stumps - 12/0. Total cost per acre = £4/17/O and the cost for 30 acres = £145/10/0.