’medicine’ or ’beer’ useful in ”scorbutic complaints” (i.e. for scurvyl7‘“, and it may also have been used as a substitute for "store tea"7“2. Stewart (1806) said that ”Canada balsam”, which was found in ”small blisters on the outside of the bark” of the balsam fir, was used on the island both ”internally and externally". He also noted that the "turpentine" produced by tamarack had "powerful medicinal qualities”, and had seen its ”very good effects on coughs and colds”. The collection of any of these substances from conifer trees did not involve the destruction of the trees, and it is just possible that the use of these substances may have encouraged the retention of particular trees near settlements.

Fruits and nuts from the forest — As noted earlier in the section on ‘The forest ground vegetation’ the common native edible berries (strawberries, raspberries, currants, gooseberries and blueberries) were listed as occurring in forest-associated habitats, especially along the forest edge or during successional stagesm, and their extensive mention in the records indicates that all of these wild fruits were collected for human consumption, though it is difficut to gauge the extent of the practice from the records. ‘lndian pear’ is also listed among the edible ”wild fruits of the island”74“, while the island’s only edible nut, the hazel, also receives mention as a human food745. The native wild cherries were undoubtedly considered too sour to eat, but Stewart (1806) said that they were used for flavouring rum and brandy.

Green manures from the forest — Judge James Peters (1851) in his lengthy pamphlet entitled Hints to the Farmers of Prince Edward Island advocated the collecting of ’ferns’ from the woods in the summer period (as had Walter Johnstone thirty years before“), as well as the fallen leaves in the autumn, to be used for animal bedding, which could be later applied as a manure to maintain the fertility of the farm’s arable land. It is

7‘“ Walsh 1803; Stewart 1806.

“2 Anon. 1826.

"3 Holland 1765 (October); [Clark] 1779; Patterson 1774; Shuttleworth 1793; [Cambridge] 1796?; [MacDonald] 1804; Stewart 1806; Anon. 1818; MacGregor 1828; Hill 1839; Bagster 1861; Sutherland 1861; Bain 1890.

7“ [Cambridge] 1796?; MacGregor 1828.

“5 MacGregor 1828; Sutherland 1861; Bain 1890.

7‘6 Johnstone 1822.

110

not evident to what extent this advice was ever followed by island farmers — certainly twenty years before it had not been: John Lewellin (1832), noting that ”much fern grows where the fire has run", said that the use of ”this capital resource of amending the land is wholly neglected".

The use of native trees in landscaping — A few of the recorders indicate that some of the native forest trees of the island were planted, both for ’ornamental’ and for functional purposes. Bain (1890) said that the native elm and the balsam poplar were planted as shade trees around dwellings, and he implies that the beech was alsom. As well, in the late nineteenth century spruce (presumably white) and white birch seem to have been planted for amenity purposes in

Victoria Park in Charlottetown”?

Turning to plantings for functional purposes, in the late nineteenth century, spruce (again presumably white) and fir, and perhaps also pine — all presumably planted — are reported as providing ’shelter’ around some farmsteads749, and spruce and fir may have been used for that purpose as far back as the 183Os750. And it seems that spruce and fir may also have been planted to form hedgerows along field boundaries, though spruce, especially, couid have colonized such sites naturally.751

Then, from Captain John MacDonald's (1784) letter to his sister, it seems that when building a house, at least among the elite of island society, the already existing forest trees might be incorporated into the landscape design:

I should like the house to be [built] near the Wood & that it would suit the regularity and proper division, so

as to please the Eye, of the Ground in front, rear and on both sides.

As well, comments about the ’large’ 'ornamental' ’timber’ at ’Mount Stewart’, the home of John Stewart, suggest that the trees there had either

"7 [Bain] (1882) observed that as ”a second-growth tree with

its broad-spreading limbs", beech made a “most beautiful shade tree".

7‘“ Ward 1887.

"9 Anon. 1877.

75" Lewellin (1832) implies so.

75‘ Lewellin (1832)