clays overlain by white sand, while Hill (1839) noted they were ”very sandy”. Evidence given to the Land Commission of 1875 suggests that fir may also have occurred on a slightly better variant of these poor soils: we are told that on the part of Lot 9 adjoining Lot 10, fir was a component, along with spruce and ash, on what was called ”spruce land”, which was considered "very good” and capable of being made into "tolerable good farmsmz; and that in Lot 10 itself, fir occurred, along with spruce, on a small 500 acre area described as ”second quality land”, which had ”some large wood upon it”, though ”pretty well culled”223. It appears that fir also occurred on successional sites resulting from forest fires, tree cutting, and farm abandonment. Johnstone (1822) states that fir was one of the tree species (the others were spruce and white birch) that colonized abandoned farmland in general, and he cited its occurrence on the clearances abandoned by the French as specific evidence. We also have such evidence from Gesner (1846) who recorded ”a thick growth of fir and spruce” at Low Point in Lot 13 on the site of the former French settlement of Malpec; and on other abandoned farmland in the Bedeque- Malpeque isthmus he noted that ”where the land is not cultivated, the birch and maple have been succeeded by groves of spruce and fir". And Johnstone’s (1822) statement indicating fir to be a colonizer on forest sites that were cut over but never cleared for agriculture”, is in agreement with Dawson's (1868) observation that fir, along with spruce, colonized areas of beech forest that had been cut for firewood. The farm of Donald McDonald on the Tracadie estate, Lot 35 ”a good part” of which was "under spruce, fir and white birch” useful only for firewood, may be a specific example of such disturbed landm. And Lawson's (1877-1878) contemporary reference to "the fine fir groves growing by the main road near Vernon River bridge", suggests that such successional fir could also occur in the form of single-species stands, though the causal agent that created this particular wood is not specified. 222 Land Commission 1875: evidence of Alexander Anderson concerning Lot 9. 223 Land Commission 1875: evidence of James Mooreshed concerning Lot 10. 224 See footnote 180 and the associated main text. 225 Land Commission 1875: evidence of Donald McDonald concerning the Tracadie estate, Lot 36. 176 Johnstone (1822) also noted fir, again along with spruce and white birch, as a colonizer of burned forest areas. He said that the site of the "great fire” of the French period in the north—east of the island was "still discoverable” because of the spruce, ’var’ [i.e. fir] and white birch that had ”sprung up" on the site. He later cites fir, as well as the same other species, as a standard colonizer of such burned sites, in a succession that involved "fire-weed" followed by ”ferns or rasp bushes” [i.e. raspberries]. Dawson (1868) also similarly commented that after fire, areas of ”fine hardwood forest" were succeeded by fir, as well as spruce, while Mollison (1905) noted that fir (again along with spruce) had colonized an area of some ”hundreds of acres” that had been burned (he thought about 1840) along the border of Lot 12 in mid-Prince County. In that area the succession had included an earlier phase of blueberry bushes. Similarly, in 1875 ”a principal part of the barren land” on the adjacent Lot 13 was described as ”burnt land” that was covered with "spruce, var [i.e. fir] etc.”226 . Properties and uses — Stewart (1806) considered the wood of the fir to be ”coarse and brittle”, and said that it was ”seldom used where pine [could] be obtained"; however, he added that ”where the grain does not twist so much as to prevent it being split", it was ”much used” for making rails for fencing, as well as for lath wood. This use of fir in fencing is noted by Johnstone (1822), who referred to fir (as well as spruce) being used in pole and ”zig-zag” [i.e. snake] fences, which he said lasted from twelve to fifteen years, and by Lawson (1877-1878), who commented that a particular grove of fir at Vernon River Bridge was suitable for fence poles. Finally, Bain (1890), noting that fir timber was "soft and light", also mentions its use for fencing, as well as for the ”frames of buildings".”7' ”8 226 Land Commission 1875: evidence of Samuel Ramsay concerning Lot 13. 22’ Benjamin Chappel) (1775-1818) worked with fir timber while at Elizabethtown (New London Bay), seemingly using the wood in the frame of the “counting house" in 1775; also in 1776 for "weatherboard" (clapboard?) — he got “166 feet 10 inches” out of one fir log; and in 1776 and 1778 he used fir for "planks”. He also used fir “slab" for some unspecified purpose in 1775. (Chappell appears not to be using the word ‘fir‘ in the sense of pine, since he also records his use of ‘pine’ in some of these same years) 228 Two other minor uses of parts of the fir tree: MacGregor (1828) (p. 60, not extracted) said that fir bark (or “rinds of fir trees", to use his term) (as well as of birch) was sometimes used as a cover for the roof of pioneer log dwellings; Selkirk (1805) noted that “small twigs of spruce and other sorts of fir‘ were used to protect this bark roof surface from the sun, and Marryat (1829)