white spruce was ’light', while MacGregor (1828) described spruce wood in general as ‘durable’. Stewart (1806) went on to rank the wood of the three species: he considered the best to be the black spruce (”a large tree fit for masts and Spars"), followed by the red (”not so valuable as the black spruce‘m, but much superior to the white"), and finally the white (”3 wood of very little value”).182 The wood of the black spruce especially was used in ship-building, notably for masts and spars‘sa. Hill (1839) noted that black spruce was also used for the topside and decks of ships; Stewart (1806) said that white spruce was sometimes used for rafters — where light wood was required; while Bain (1890) noted that spruce wood in general was used for ”rough boards and shingles”. It seems that spruce may also have been used for sleepers in the building of the Prince Edward Island Railway‘e“. ’Spruce’ was one of the three softwoods mentioned in regulations drawn up by the colony's House of Assembly to set standards for the size and quality of ”ton timber” for export: it had to be a minimum of ten inches

square — later raised to twelve‘ss.

Spruce logs were also used in the construction of the first pioneer log houses, in part because they were of a moderate size‘ae‘, while spruce bark (as well as that of birch) was used as a covering on the roofs of the same log houses, on top of which were placed small spruce twigs (and those of ”other sorts of fir”) to protect the bark from the

18‘ In contradiction to this, as noted earlier (see footnote 140)

Perley (1847) considered the red spruce to be a superior form of the black species.

‘82 However, see footnote 97 for a problem with Stewart's naming of the spruces. I note in fact that a modern report (Blum 1990) says that the wood of the three spruce species cannot be distinguished with certainty by either gross characteristics or minute anatomy and that all three species are usually marketed as “eastern spruce". Given that, and the problems of distinguishing red and black spruce in the field, I doubt that we can be categorical in the various uses ofthe wood.

‘53 Stewart (1806); Hill (1839) — that Hill says black spruce was used for spars for large vessels and for masts of the smaller, tells us something of the tree sizes; Bain (1890); Chappell (1775- 1818): he used the "best black spruce" for the gaffs, boom and the fourteen foot long mast of "the great barge“ that he built in Charlottetown in 1779.

18" Land Commission 1875: evidence of Donald Campbell, Lot 16, who says that “sleepers had been culled off" land in the lot that had been “covered principally with spruce”. We may thus infer

that they were of spruce.

“‘5 House of Assembly (1778-1849) (in 1817, 1820 and 1849). See footnote 76 for the definition of ton timber.

“’6 Selkirk 1803, [Hill] 1819. Selkirk (1805) says the logs used in houses were about eight inches in diameter.

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sun‘”. Spruce logs were also laid across track-

ways and roads through swamps and wet places — though when old they could break and be dangerous‘”. Smaller trees of pole size were used as rails in fencing‘ag, Johnstone (1822) noting that such spruce fences could last for twelve to fifteen years. Stewart (1806) also recorded that the birch bark canoes of the Mi'kmaq were sown together "with small slips of

the roots of black spruce”.

The spruce tree also yielded a unique product, i.e. spruce beer‘go, which is mentioned by three recorders, one of whom stated that it was one of the 'general' drinks of the island”‘. However, it seems to have been used only during the early

colonial period.

In the late nineteenth century spruce trees (presumably white spruce) seem to have served as shelter belts around farm homesteads‘gz, and also contributed to field boundaries in the form of hedgerows‘”, which it probably colonized naturally, though Lewellin (1832) indicates that some were also planted for the purpose. Spruce also served as ornamental trees in Victoria Park in Charlottetown‘s“. Finally, in land clearance operations the roots of spruce decayed sufficiently

in three to five years to be "grubbed out”‘95.

“‘7 Selkirk 1805. MacGregor 1828 (p. 60, not extracted) also commented that “spruce branches“ were sometimes used to thatch the roof of log houses.

‘85 Selkirk 1803. They must also have been used for bridges: Sir George Seymour (1840) records in his journal that his horse “got his legs through a rotten corduroy bridge but scrambled up“.

‘39 Selkirk 1803. In evidence to the Land Commission (1875), H. Braddock of Lot 36 said that ”second growth" spruce was useful only for fencing.

19° Perley (1847) (pp. 419-20, not extracted), writing about New Brunswick, said that it was the black spruce that was used for beer, and that the drink was useful to counteract scurvy during long sea voyages. He gives a short recipe for making spruce beer and says that it was especially drunk by the fisherman of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Newfoundland.

‘9‘ Anon. 1771; [Cambridge]1796?; Stewart 1806. It was John Cambridge who said it was a general island drink. Jean-Pierre Roma in 1750 had also mentioned it as the "boisson commune “ [common drink] of the island during the French period (see Sobey 2002, pp. 89, 92).

‘92 Anon. 1877; also implied by Lewellin (1832).

‘93 Ward 1887.

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Ward 1887.

195

Selkirk (1803) says in “3 or 4 years", MacGregor (1828) in “four or five years".