(1822) observed that ”white birch” (as well as 
     
     spruce and fir) colonized the French clearances, as 
     
     well as other abandoned farmland, which he cited 
     
     as an example of a more general phenomenon that 
     
     he did not fully understand, but which we now 
     
     know by the name of plant succession. A careful 
     
     reading of Johnstone’s words indicates that white 
     
     birch was also a successional tree on areas on 
     
     which the timber had been simply cut, without any 
     
    
   
   
    
     further clearance for agriculture“? 
     
    
   
   
    
     On burnt land also, and especially on the lands 
     
     that had been burnt during the French period, 
     
     Johnstone (1822) and MacGregor (1828) made 
     
     the general observation that white birch was a 
     
     prevalent species, though they had no idea of the 
     
     precise date of the fires. In addition, we have more 
     
     geographically precise observations of such an 
     
     association: in the area of East Point, the 
     
     anonymous officer who "ran over” the island in 
     
     1762 noted that ”the Lands [were] thickly Cover'd 
     
     with a small Specie of Birch"456 — though he 
     
     makes no mention of a fire in the area himself, 
     
     from French period records we know that the area 
     
     had been burned.457 Selkirk associated the 
     
     ”spruce and birch” that he observed on Lot 62 
     
     near Wood Islands with a 'great fire’ that he was 
     
     told had occurred ”30 or 40 years before"“58, 
     
     while Lawson (1877-1878) recalled that areas in 
     
     the Belfast settlement that had been burned by the 
     
     French had had white birch (and softwoods) on 
     
     them when first settled by the Scots. 
     
    
   
   
    
     In contrast with yellow birch, ”small white birch” 
     
     (along with spruce and scrubby pines) was 
     
     considered to be a sign of the ’worst land’ by 
     
     Stewart (1806) — the soil of such land, he said, 
     
     was ”generally very light and sandy”“59. As noted 
     
     above, Selkirk (1803) also recorded that white 
     
     birch was a sign of poorer land than yellow birch, 
     
     while Bain (1882) stated that both the white and 
     
     grey birch ”delight in damp soils”. 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     ‘55 See footnote 180 - Johnstone‘s words are applicable as much 
     
    
   
   
    
     to white birch as to spruce and fir. 
     
     ‘56 Anon. 1762. 
     
    
   
   
    
     ‘57 See Sobey (2002), pp, 23-24. The burned state of the land had 
     
     been recorded in 1752 by Joseph de La Roque, and likely dated 
     
     from at least 1742 or even 1736, 
     
    
   
   
    
     ‘58 Samuel Holland (1765) had noted ‘burnt woods' in the same 
     
     area in 1765 (PARO; Map 06170: the words are written directly on 
     
     the map). 
     
    

    
     ‘59 It is not certain whether Stewart is here referring to white birch 
     
     (Beta/a papyn‘fera) or grey birch (P. popu/ifolia). 
     
    
   
   
    
     Properties and uses — Yellow birch and white birch 
     
     had very different properties and uses. Bain's 
     
     (1890) statement that the yellow birch ”is the 
     
     most useful hardwood we possess” is a definitive 
     
     assertion of what had been implied by the 
     
     comments of several earlier recorders“? The uses 
     
     recorded for the wood were manifold: it was used 
     
    
   
   
    
     in ship-building‘e‘, in furniture and cabinet— 
     
     makingm; for mill-work and machinery‘“; for 
     
     farming utensils464; in domestic articles465; in 
     
     Mom“; in carriage-buildingm; and in ”the 
     
    
   
   
    
     construction of bridges and houses where strength 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     ‘60 Patterson (1774) said it was “hard; tough and durable"; 
     
     Holland (1765: October) termed it “a useful and handsome wood"; 
     
     Walsh (1803) said it produced ”excellent timber”; and Selkirk 
     
     (1805) noted that it was “in estimation". 
     
    
   
   
    
     ‘61 Stewart 1806; Anon. 1808; Hill 1839; Bain 1890. None of 
     
     these recorders specify the particular parts of ships for which the 
     
     wood was used. However Perley (1847) in his paper on the trees 
     
     of New Brunswick records that black and yellow birch (he 
     
     differentiates them as separate species) were used for “that part of 
     
     the frame of vessels that always remains under water"; i.e. the 
     
     “keel and lower timbers of vessels" adding that black birch was 
     
     “almost imperishable under water”. 
     
    
   
   
    
     ‘62 Patterson 1774; Stewart 1806; Anon. 1808; MacGregor 
     
     1828; Hill 1839; Bain 1890. Both Stewart and MacGregor noted 
     
     that it took a good polish and compared favourably with mahogany. 
     
     Bedsteads and chairs are specifically mentioned by Stewart; 
     
     though he considered it less suitable for tables, “being apt to cast 
     
     [i.e. stain] in that article”. I also note that Captain John MacDonald 
     
     (1784) in a letter to his sister Nelly instructed her to have “some 
     
     twenty or thirty thick logs of the best black Birch“ (as well as other 
     
     woods) cut and seasoned so as to be ready in the future for “chairs 
     
     and other uses". 
     
    
   
   
    
     “63 Hill1839;Bain1890. 
     
     46‘ Patterson 1774. 
     
    
   
   
    
     ‘65 Stewart 1806, 
     
    
   
   
    
     466 
     
    
   
   
    
     Stewart 1806. Perley (1847) records that “the young saplings 
     
     [of ‘yellow birch’] are employed in New Brunswick almost 
     
     exclusively for the hoops of casks". 
     
    
   
   
    
     ‘67 Bain 1890. 
     
    
   
   
    
     207