606 A. E. Verrill— The Bermuda Islands. 



possible, down to 1684, when the charter of the Company was with- 

 drawn. 



The following record indicates the value of the cedar wood in 

 England, for furniture, and the stringent rules against shipping it :* 

 "At a General Court for the Somer Islands Company held in 

 Watling Street, London, on Friday the 27th April, 1667." "Mr. 

 Henry Moore a member of the Company, having been an Inhabitant 

 in the Islands for 30 years past, and having purchased several shares 

 of Land there, some whereof are well timbered, and having thereon 

 many cedar trees fallen and upon spoil. And never having trans- 

 ported for his own or his friends use, any Cedar in all his time, 

 craves liberty to transport three Ton of such cedar trees onty, to 

 pleasure friends for kindness received, which is granted." 



In 1675, the Company enacted another law forbidding the use of 

 cedar in any form, as fuel for boiling the juice of the sugar cane to 

 make sugai*. This industry was never carried on here except in a 

 very small way for local consumption. But much cedar fuel has 

 always been used in the kilns for burning lime. 



In spite of all these restrictions, the cedar forests continued to be 

 rapidly destroyed, as they must needs be in a place of limited area, 

 where there was very little other fuel, or other available timber for 

 building, so that before 1700 many of the land owners had no trees, 

 even for domestic fuel, on their land. 



Moi'eover, the Bermuda Company were continually demanding the 

 planting of more and more land with tobacco and other crops that 

 could furnish profits to them, and the forests of cedar had to be 

 cleared away to make room for the fields. In many cases the 

 planters were accused of killing the young cedars in burning the 

 brush. Doubtless this was often done recklessly and without due 

 reference to its ultimate effects in rendering the land unproductive 

 in exposed situations. But the roots of the cedars extend very far 

 in all directions in search of good soil, and no cultivated crops can 

 be grown very near them on this account, for they rob the soil. 

 All the cedars now on the islands are "second growth" and "third 

 growth." The small forests and groves are mostly situated on the 

 hills, where the soil is thin and not arable. Originall}' the cedars 

 also grew in the lowlands and swamps, where they attained a larger 



* Doubtless it was on account of the value of the cedar lumber that the 

 "chests" were gradually increased in size till the captains of the ships com- 

 plained of their great weight. In 1679, a rule was adopted that none should be 

 shipped weighing over 1,500 pounds. 



