trade is carried out, this is about all we can say on the importance of the various softwoods in the export trade. “9

In fact more important as an export than these latter three softwoods was the hardwood tree that came a distant second in the 1836 ’Peake sample’: ’birch’, namely yellow birch65°. The first mention that we have of the export of this very useful wood651 is in 1806 when John Stewart noted that the export to the British Isles of what he called ’black birch’ timber had recently begunm. Then, over fifty years later, George Sutherland (1860) commented that yellow birch was the ”largest and best timber for export”, while even as late as 1890 Francis Bain recorded that ”large quantities are exported as ton-timber” — though by that time, despite his use of the present tense, the trade was surely over. In fact, among the hardwoods, ’birch’ had been singled out by being specifically named in the laws that set the minimum dimensions of the ’ton timber’ exported from the islands“. As for the island’s two other principal hardwood trees, beech and sugar maple, there would seem to have been only a limited export of them: all that is recorded of beech is Stewart's (1806) comment that it was ‘sometimes’ exported, while Hill (1839) recorded that ”some rock or bird’s-eye maple is sent annually to England where it is used for cabinet work”.654 However, as was so for the softwoods,

6‘9 As for the other two softwoods, spruce and fir, from the limited

evidence available to me at the moment, both appear to have been unimportant in the export trade: in my examination of the cargoes of the 42 ships listed in the island‘s custom records as carrying timber to Great Britain between 1802 and 1808, I came across only a few mentions of these species: on 1 July 1807, the Hope had “60 spruce oars and 12 rough spruce spars" in its cargo, while on 10 September of the same year the Chariton loaded "20 spruce spars"; then on 22 August 1808, the Hope was recorded as having in its cargo "9 pieces of fir containing 4 tons 11 feet". Of course these woods might also have contributed to other wood products for which the species was not given [PARO: R.G. 9: Collector of Customs. Shipping outwards, all points,1802-1827].

55° See footnote 639.

65‘ See Appendix 1: Yellow birch: ‘Properties and uses‘.

652 Stewart said that “a few cargoes have recently been exported from this Island, chiefly to Liverpool and other ports in the north of England, and also to Scotland and Ireland, where it is much approved of". However, he said that attempts to introduce it into the London market had not proved successful.

653 House of Assembly 1773-1849: 1820 and 1849. (Its not receiving a mention in the 1817 act suggests a change in attitude towards it by 1820.)

65‘ There may have been other hardwoods exported: Murray (1839), citing the Journal of the House of Assembly and the

97

to get a comprehensive picture of the export trade for all of these hardwoods, a thorough analysis of the custom records is required.655

The effect of the timber harvest on the forest — As we have seen, the selection of timber for export (and presumably for local use as well) involved the ’culling out’ of the better and larger specimens of whatever tree species was the object of the lumbering. In the early days, as we have also seen, this would have been white pine, a tree that tended to occur either in ’groves’ or as scattered trees within the upland hardwood forests“. We may presume that the pine occurring in ’groves’ would have been especially vulnerable to being systematically 'destroyed’ (to use Smethurst’s word for the process at Three Rivers) (’clear- cutting’ is the modern word), whereas in the upland hardwood forest, pine would likely have been selectively removed. Walter Johnstone’s comment in 1822 that the pine ”is now all cut everywhere near the shores”, suggests, as we would expect, that initially the more accessible trees near the shore and water courses would have been harvested first657. Thereafter, the lumberers would have had to move further and further inland, though from the 18105 onward when the population of the island began its steady increase”, the area available for unrestricted ’lumbering’ would have steadily decreased as the forest became incorporated into the bounds of new ’wood farms’ and settlements; and as well, there would also have been the destructive effects of the inevitable forest fires that occurred in the vicinity of many of the settlements, as we have already seen. However, such settlement did not give greater protection to the pines — on the contrary, they and any other useful timber now

‘Colonial Tables‘ lists ‘ash‘ (along with pine and birch) as being exported in 1834.

555 In my examination of the cargoes of the 42 ships listed in the island‘s custom records as carrying timber to Great Britain between 1802 and 1808, the number of times that specific hardwoods are named in the records are: ‘black birch‘ [i.e. yellow birch] - 13 times); ‘birch‘ [also likely to be yellow birch] - 9 times; ‘maple' - 10 times; ‘beech‘ - 6 times; oak - twice; ash - twice. [PARO: R.G. 9: Collector of Customs. Shipping outwards, all points,1802-1827].

656 See Appendix 1: Pine: ‘Habitat and community relationships'.

657 Johnstone 1822. As noted, the “upwards of twelve hundred white pine trees“ harvested at Three Rivers in 1768 were all from within 150 yards of the high water mark (Smethurst 1774). Wynn (1981) (p. 43) also observes that it was the practice in New Brunswick to harvest the more accessible pine trees first.

658 See Figure 4 on p. 40,