Secondary succession on cleared land.

The French c/earances.

Log and frame houses.

Pole fencing.

Thorn hedges.

’One en tire f0 res t ’.

Hardwood and softwood.

Tree species.

Mixtures and single species stands.

of almost nothing but timber, and where the timber is cut, and not burnt upon the surface, it will even then produce little or no grass, but will soon spring up in new wood, but always of a different kind from what was upon it before. Indeed it has as great a tendency to return to the production of timber of some kind or other, as the wildest heathy ground in Scotland has to return to heather, even after cultivation has commenced; for after the land here has been cleared and under cultivation for many years, and afterwards left to itself, it is immediately covered anew with some kind of wood, generally of spruce, var (silver fir) and white birch. This is verified in all the clearances the French had made upon it more than sixty years ago. The land then cleared has all returned to its natural state, and now grown up with wood of the above descriptions. [pp. 9495]

Their cattle run at large in the woods during summer [p. 97]

Their houses are all constructed of wood, some of squared, and others unsquared logs, laid horizontally, and dove-tailed at the corners. Others have the wood set perpendicularly, and fixed to beams above and below, previously framed together, the whole size of the building. This is called a frame—house: some are thatched with birch-bark, others with boards; and the old settlers generally have them shingled. This is pine split thin, and dressed with a drawing knife, like slate, and nailed on in like manner. [p. 97]

These fences [i.e.’zig-zag’ or snake fences, and straight—line po/e fences], when constructed of good poles of spruce or var (silver fir) will last, it is said, twelve or fifteen years. Fences of this kind are erected betwixt farm and farm alongst the shores, and between the clear ground and the woods; but they have not begun to sub-divide their ground any where . Neither is there a thorn hedge in the whole Island! His footnote: after examining the gardens of Charlotte Town more narrowly, I found one of them with an excellent hedge round it, of British hawthorn, which were thriving as well as they do at home; and on a farm near the same place, some British thorns have been injudiciously planted upon the top of the dykes, and for want of moisture they are thriving very badly. [p. 99-100]

Letter Third, Charlotte Town, Oct. 20th, 1820. [pp. 100—07] Having now obtained a pretty extended view of the country myself, I shall, to the best of my ability, in the present Letter, attempt a description of the woods and general appearance of the country;

I may begin by observing, that the country is one entire forest of wood; all the exceptions to the truth of this literally are not much more, even including the present clearances, than the dark spots upon the moon’s face, as they appear to the naked eye, compared with the brighter parts thereof. This forest the natives distinguish by the names of hard wood and soft wood. Each of these contains a great variety of kinds, such as oak, ash, elm, beech, maple, birch, alder, and poplar, with many other kinds which rank among the first division, while pine, hemlock, spruce, var, juniper (larch) rank amongst the latter. Of many of these there is a variety of species also. Of the mapple there is white rock or curly, and bird-eye; white, yellow, and black of the birch; and of the spruce, black, red and white. In some parts the wood is growing in a promiscuous manner; that is, we meet with a mixture of hard and soft wood; in other parts there are clumps of a particular kind found by themselves, such as hemlock, spruce, birch, and beech. Amongst the old woods the cause of this is in the soil, upon which these are found, being more congenial to the production of that particular kind than any other; but where the old timber has been destroyed by being

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