Indians supp/y game and fire wood.

8a w mil/s.

Land clearing procedures.

Little under— gro wth.

Forest soil.

the Indian families maintain themselves in the spring, summer, and autumn, principally by fishing and shooting wildfowl, which they sell to the inhabitants at a very low price; and in the winter by cutting timber and fire-wood for the inhabitants. Charlotte Town is principally supplied with fire-wood cut by them. [p. 19]

MURRAY HARBOUR, Messrs. Lemuel and Art/mas Cambridge, have a saw-mill and a grist-mill, and their principal business lays in the timber trade, which they have carried on to a considerable extent.

THREE RIVERS, The chief person carrying on business there is Mr. Andrew MDona/d, who is also engaged in the trade of timber. [p. 20]

HOLLAND BAY or CASCUMPEC, There is a saw-mill and a grist—mill here, and the country surrounding this harbour has a far greater quantity of marketable timber than any other part of the island, which is a great advantage to the settlers, who in the winter cut it down and deliver it in payment of such supplies as they have received from the proprietor's stores, and in discharge of their rent.

Goods are imported direct from England, and credit is given to such as are industrious,

till by their crops and cutting timber they can pay for the same. [p. 21] At RUSTICO, the principal proprietor Mr. Hodges has a saw-mill . At NEW LONDON there is a saw-mill at this port belonging to Mr. Cambridge. . [p. 22]

Of HOLLAND HARBOUR, Mr. Hill is the sole proprietor, also of the whole of the surrounding lands; he has an agent who receives in payment of rent the produce of their farms, or timber cut down in the winter.

At Bedeque, the principal person is a Mr. Campbell, who has carried on a successful trade in timber. [p. 22]

From the new sections not in the letter of January 1819:

. in general the country is covered with wood, and one who takes land of this description has to build, or get built, a log-house, which consists of the trunks of pine

and spruce trees placed one above the other, and dove-tailed at the end, which forms the walls; [p. 23]

The next step is to clear the land . The mode is to cut down the trees to about two feet from the ground, lop off the limbs, and cut the trunks into lengths of about fourteen feet, and pile them ready for burning, after which they make a ”burn", as they term it. An expert axe-men will cut about an acre per week, Iopping the limbs and piling them for burning, as before mentioned; there is scare any underwood. The common price for this operation is from twenty to twenty-one shillings per acre. The next operation is to burn the limbs and trunks over the space thus cleared, which ameliorates the soil, and makes it fit for cultivation. The stumps remain, and with a small plough the surface is stirred; it is then cropped with potatoes or corn [i.e. grain] or both. [pp. 23-24]

The top soil, from the falling and rotting of the leaves on the surface, consists of a very good vegetable mould, and the burning has the same effect as a long exposure to the sun, and it will by this means produce excellent crops. [p. 24]

At first it will appear singular to an European farmer to begin ploughing and harrowing between stumps of trees, but when he finds how easily this is performed (the trees