Lewellin, J. L. (1832) Emigration. Prince Edward Island: A Brief but Faithful Account of this Fine Colony. James D. Haszard, Charlotte—Town. [Republished in: Harvey, D. C. (ed.) (1955) Journeys to the Island of St. John or Prince Edward Island. MacMillan, Toronto. pp. 175—213.]

John Lewellin (b. c. 1 787, d. 1857) had farmed for sixteen years in England before emigrating from Wiltshire to Prince Edward Island in 1824, where he acted as land agent for John Cambridge and Laurence Sulivan, two major proprietors who owned some thirteen lots between them. He settled on a farm in Lot 67 (in the Cardigan Bay areal and for the rest of his life took an active interest in promoting progressive farming practices among island farmers, as well as serving in the legislature for a couple of years. He wrote the first draft of his pamphlet in 1826 while on a return visit to England, ”to begui/e” as he says in the preface, ”the stormy hours of a winter passage across the Atlantic, as well as, chiefly, to redeem a beautiful Island from the most unaccountable neglect”. After major revision, he had it published in Charlottetown in 1832, followed by two issues in England in 7833 and 7834. The purpose of the work is to encourage immigrants, especially farmers, to come to the island from Britain, and to serve them as a practical guidebook in the process of emigrating and settling into the new environment: ”with directions how to proceed, what to provide, and what steps to take on arriving in the colony”. He claims that what he writes is ”agreeable to truth”, and is not written for his own personal advantage nor for payment. It in fact seems to be a reasonably accurate account written by someone whose only bias, open/y stated, is a confident belief in the future prosperity of the island. His main focus is on agriculture — he has little interest in the natural forest, and there are only a few references in passing to forest trees.

REFERENCES: Harvey, D. C. (1955) Introduction. Journeys to the Island of St. John. pp. 175-79. Holman, H. T. & Greenhill, B. (1985) Lewellin, John Lewellin, Dictionary of Canadian Biography, VIII: 505-06.

Though Prince Edward Island shares not the wild extravagancies and romantic scenery which characterize her neighbours, the sentimentalist [will not] want

Aes’hef’b, subjects for his pen, when he contemplates the azure expanse of ocean, the noble appreClatlon 0f navigable river and its busy craft, the alternate forest, of varied hue, and the well the forest. . cultivated farm [Footnote, p. 190] . there is pleasure also in creating, as it were, a farm out of the wilderness, which, with every returning season yields increased cause for exultation. Farm animals The general mode of conducting a farm is slovenly, often wretched. Cattle, in the wood sheep and pigs are turned into the woods, to get their own living during Summer;

Few farms have any subdivison fences. [p. 193]

The first operation of settlement upon a wood farm is to cut down the Timber, which is done about a yard from the ground; it is then junked into nine feet lengths and burnt; the trunks which remain are piled and again burnt, until the settler is enabled to put in his potato crop, which is done by gathering with the hoe such mould as the roots will admit of into hills, in each of which four or five sets are planted. Wheat, sown broad-cast, and covered with the hoe, generally succeeds; or oats, among which timothy seed is, or ought to be, sown for hay, and the land suffered to remain under grass till the stumps will come out, commonly in five or six years, if the timber had been hardwood. The Americans are said to manage this process much better, by cutting all the trees under six inches diameter level with the ground, which enables

Tree clearance.

them to use the harrow in sowing their wheat crop immediately. lop. 193-94]

Catt/e in the Horned cattle are wintered on straw, which, in connection with their being summered woods. in the woods, occasions a small return of dairy productions from the milch cows.

[p. 195-96]

Costs of Cutting down and junking timber per acre 303. to 403.; if burnt 505. to 60$. Stumping

clearance. and levelling forty shillings to three pounds. [p. 196]

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