DIRECTIONS FOR ASCERTAINING THE QUALITY OF LAND IN THE BUSH.—SITE OF
LOG-SHANTY.—CHOPPING.—PREPARATION FOR SPRING-CROPS.—METHOD OF PLANTING
INDIAN CORN.—PUMPKINS AND POTATOES.—MAKING POT-ASH.
I shall now endeavour to give the emigrant some information to guide
him in the selection of his land, and other matters connected with a
settlement in the bush. In the first place, the quality of the land is
the greatest consideration, and to make a good choice requires a
practical knowledge as to the nature of the soils, and the different
kinds of timber growing thereon.
The best land is timbered with oak, ash, elm, beech, bass-wood, and
sugar maple. A fair mixture of this species of trees is best, with here
and there a large pine, and a few Canadian balsams scattered among the
hard-wood. Too great a proportion of beech indicates sand or light
loam: a preponderance of rock elm is a sign of gravel or limestone-rock
near the surface.
The timber should be lofty, clean in the bark and straight in the
grain, and of quick growth. The woods should be open, free from
evergreens, and with little under-brush. Generally speaking, the soil
is of excellent quality, when timbered in the manner described.
It however, often happens, that the best land is full of boulders,
which are both troublesome and expensive to remove. Two-thirds of these
stones are not visible above the surface, and the remainder are so
covered with moss and leaves, that they require a practised eye to
detect them. I have no objection to a small quantity of stones, as they
are useful to construct French drains, or to roll into the bottoms of
the rail-fences.
When limestone-flag is near the surface, the stems of the trees will be
shorter, their heads more bushy, and the roots spreading along the top
of the ground. Such land is apt to burn in hot weather, and soon
becomes exhausted. White pine, or hemlock ridges, are almost always
sandy, and good for little—except the timber, which is valuable, if
near enough to water. White-pine, mixed with hard-wood, generally
indicates strong clay land, good for wheat; but the difficulty of
clearing off such heavy timber, and the long time it takes to get rid
of the stumps, render such a selection unprofitable, and add additional
toil to the emigrant.
The best land for wheat should be gently undulating soil, rich loam, on
a clay bottom. In the summer months you can judge the quality of the
land by the freshly turned-up roots of trees, which have fallen by the
wind.
In winter, when the surface of the ground is covered with snow, and
frozen hard, the growth and quality of the timber, as before described,
are your only mode of judging correctly.
A constant supply of water is absolutely necessary, in a country liable
to such extreme heat in summer. Canada West, abounding, as it does, in
small spring-creeks, rivers, and lakes, is, perhaps, as well watered as
any country in the world; and, in almost every section of the country,
even on the highest ridges, good water can be obtained by digging
wells, which seldom require to be sunk more than twenty feet; and in
many townships, not half that depth is required.
After the emigrant has selected a proper location, his next object is
to choose the best situation to build his shanty, and chop his first
fallow. Most settlers like to commence as near as possible to the
concession-line or public road; but sometimes the vicinity of a stream
of water or good spring is preferred. In fact, circumstances must, in
some measure, guide them in their choice.
The best time of the year to commence operations is early in September.
The weather is then moderately warm and pleasant, and there are no
flies in the Bush to annoy you.
A log shanty, twenty-four feet long by sixteen, is large enough to
begin with, and should be roofed either with shingles or troughs. A
small cellar should be dug near the fire-place, commodious enough to
hold twenty or thirty bushels of potatoes, a barrel or two of pork, &c.
As soon as your shanty is completed, measure off as many acres as you
intend to chop during the winter, and mark the boundaries by blazing
the trees on each side.
The next operation is to cut down all the small trees and brush—this is
called under-brushing. The rule is to cut everything close to the
ground from the diameter of six inches downwards.
There are two modes of piling, either in heaps or in wind-rows. If your
fallow is full of evergreens, such as hemlock, pine, balsam, cedar, and
such description of timber, then I should say wind-rows are the best;
but when the timber is deciduous, heaps are better.
The brush should be carefully piled and laid all one way, by which
means it packs closer and burns better. The regular price for
underbrushing hard-wood land, and cutting up-all the old fallen
timber—which is always considered a part of the underbrushing—is one
dollar per acre, and board. Rough land and swamp vary from seven
shillings and sixpence to ten shillings. Your under-brush should be all
cut and piled by the end of November, before the snow falls to the
depth of four inches, for after that it would be both difficult and
tedious.
The chopping now begins, and may be followed without any interruption
until the season for sugar-making commences. The heads of the trees
should be thrown upon the heaps or wind-rows. A skilful chopper will
scarcely ever miss a heap when felling the timber, besides it saves a
great deal of labour in piling the limbs.
The trunks of the trees must be cut into lengths, from fourteen to
sixteen feet, according to the size of the timber. Now and then a large
maple or beech, when felled, may be left without cutting up, with the
exception of the top, which is called a plan-heap, and is left to log
against: this is only done when the tree is too large to be cut through
easily with the axe.
All timber fit for making rails should be left in double and treble
lengths, as it is less likely to burn.
A good axe-man should be able, with fair chopping, to cut an acre in
eight days after the under-brushing is done. The regular price of
chopping is five dollars per acre, with board, or six without.
The emigrant should endeavour to get as much chopping done as possible
during the first three years, because after that time he has so many
other things to attend to, such as increase of stock, barn and
house-building, thrashing, ploughing, &c., which, of course, give him
every year less time for chopping, particularly if his family be small,
in which case fifty or sixty acres are enough to clear at first, till
his boys are old enough to give him assistance.
Clearing up too large a farm, when labour is so high, is not wise, for
it will not answer to disburse much for hire, at the present prices.
If, therefore, you are not able to cultivate what you have cleared
properly, it will grow up again with raspberries, blackberries, small
trees, and brush, and be nearly as bad to clear as it was at first.
The size of the farm must, however, depend on the resources of the
emigrant, the strength and number of his family, and the quantity of
acres he may possess.
In the month of May the settler should spring-burn three or four acres,
and log them up for his spring-crops, such as potatoes and Indian-corn.
The Indian-corn should be planted with the hoe in rows, three feet
apart and thirty inches in the row. A pumpkin-seed or two should be
sown in every second or third hole in each third row. The corn must be
earthed or hilled up by drawing the mould close round the roots, and
five or six inches up the stalks, which should be done when the plants
are fifteen or sixteen inches high. No further cultivation is necessary
until the time of cutting, except breaking off some shoots from the
roots, if too many are thrown out.
Potatoes on the new land are also planted with the hoe, and in hills of
about five thousand to the acre. A hole is scraped with the hoe, in
which four or five sets, or a whole potato is dropped. The earth is
then heaped over them in the form of a mole-hill, but somewhat larger.
After the plants have appeared above the surface, a little more mould
is drawn around them. Very large crops of potatoes are raised in this
manner. Two hundred and fifty bushels per acre are no uncommon crop. I
have assisted in raising double that quantity; but of late years, since
the disease has been prevalent, but poor crops have been realized.
Both white turnips and swedes do well, and grow to a large size,
particularly on new land: the roots must be either pitted or put in a
root-house, or cellar, as the winter is too severe for them to remain
unhoused.
The remainder of the fallow should be burnt off and logged up in July,
the rail-cuts split into quarters and drawn off to the site of the
fences, ready for splitting into rails. After the log-heaps are burnt,
you should either spread the ashes or rake them while hot into heaps,
if you intend to make potash,[1] with which, by the by, I should advise
the new-comer to have nothing to do until he has made himself
thoroughly acquainted with the process.
[1] This article is very extensively made in nearly all the new
settlements, and may be considered one of the staples of the country.
The process is very simple; but great care must be taken in collecting
the ashes clear of sand or dirt of any description. If your ashes are
well saved and from good timber, ten acres should produce at least
five barrels of potash, each barrel containing five hundred weight.
Several things should be considered before the emigrant attempts the
manufacture of this article. Firstly, his land should be well timbered
with oak, elm, maple, and bass-wood. Secondly, it must have a stream
of water, near which he may erect his works. And, lastly, it ought to
be within reach of a market and a remunerating price, which, to pay
the manufacturer, should not be less than twenty-five shillings,
Halifax currency, per cwt.
The best situation to erect an ashery upon, is the side of a bank,
beside a running stream; and if there should be fall enough in the
creek to bring a supply of water over head into the leaches, a
great deal of labour will be saved. An ash-house, six or eight
leach-tubs, a pot-ash kettle, and three or four coolers are all the
requisites necessary. Most persons use a small portion of common
salt and lime in the manufacture of pot-ash. After the lye is run
off it is boiled down into black salts, which are melted into
pot-ash, cooled off, and packed into air-tight barrels ready for
market.
As soon as the settler has cleared up fifteen or twenty acres, his
first care should be to erect a frame or log-barn; I should strongly
recommend the former, if boards can be obtained in the neighbourhood,
as it is undoubtedly the best and cheapest in the long run. If I were
commencing life again in the woods, I would not build anything of logs
except a shanty or a pig-sty; for experience has plainly told me that
log buildings are the dirtiest, most inconvenient, and the dearest when
everything is taken into consideration.
As soon as the settler is ready to build, let him put up a good frame,
roughcast, or stone-house, if he can possibly raise the means, as
stone, timber, and lime, cost nothing but the labour of collecting and
carrying the materials. When I say that they “cost nothing,” I mean
that no cash is required for these articles, as they can be prepared by
the exertion of the family.
With the addition of from a hundred to a hundred and fifty pounds in
money to the raw material, a good substantial and comfortable dwelling
can be completed. Two or three years should be spent in preparing and
collecting materials, so that your timber may be perfectly seasoned
before you commence building.
Apple and plum orchards should be planted as soon as possible, and well
fenced from the cattle and sheep. The best kind of grafted fruit-trees,
from three to seven years old, can be obtained for a shilling a tree;
ungrafted, at four shillings the dozen.
The apple-tree flourishes extremely well in this country, and grows to
a large size. I gathered last year, out of my orchard, several Ribstone
Pippins, each of which weighed more than twelve ounces, and were of a
very fine flavour. The native plums are not very good in their raw
state, but they make an excellent preserve, and good wine.
Some of the particulars mentioned in this chapter have been glanced at
in an earlier portion of the work; but I make no apology for the
repetition. My object is, to offer instruction to the inexperienced
settler, and to impress these important matters more firmly upon his
mind and memory, that he may have his experience at a cheaper rate than
if he purchased it at the expense of wasted time, labour, and capital.