106 EMIGRATION, OR 



gates, holes being made in the posts to let them inside, 

 which are used in the new settlements : basswood bark, 

 for ropes. Butternut-tree and cedar, for bar-posts, &c. 

 Sugar maple and two other sorts, for firewood. Chestnut 

 and white wood, for boards, and the former, with two 

 or three sorts of ash and hickory, for rails. Hemlock and 

 oak bark, for tanning. Buttonwood (sycamore), beech, 

 two sorts, elm, two sorts, birch, two sorts, locust, balm 

 of Gilead (very large), sassafras, juniper, tamrisk, &c. 

 Trees here, in general, are not so tough as in England, 

 except those that stand open and exposed. 



The method pursued, on going into the woods (or bush, as 

 it is termed) to settle, is, to clear a proper site for a house, 

 and cut logs for that purpose into proper lengths. This 

 can be done in a week by one person. He then invites 

 his neighbours to raise it, which they will do in a day. 

 He has then to build a chimney ; the bottom of stones, the 

 top wattled with small lathwood, and plastered with tem 

 pered clay the hearth to be laid with stones, if bricks are 

 not made in the neighbourhood. [They are made in all 

 the old settled parts, and sold at about from 23s. to 305. 

 per thousand.] Boarded floor, the boards to be procured 

 at a saw-mill, if one be near ; if not, some split and hewed 

 logs will answer the purpose.* If the settler arrives on 

 his lot in the spring, which is best, or early in the summer, 

 he next clears off a piece of ground for potatoes, and corn 

 the first summer, by chopping the trees down about four 

 feet from the ground ; he then cuts them into fourteen feet 

 lengths, and throws their heads into brush heaps, hauls the 

 logs into heaps, six or eight in each, with a yoke of oxen, 

 and a hand or two to help ; he then burns them, as well as 

 the brush heaps, and preserves the ashes, if a potashery be 

 in the neigh bourhood.f Observe, when felling the trees, 



* Saw and grist mills cost from 180L to 600/.in erecting, according 

 to the expense in making the dam, and the manner in which they are 

 finished. A single saw, with plenty of water, will cut from 800 to 2000 

 feet per day, according to the water-power and the kind of wood, which 

 sells at the mills at from 20s. to 35s. per 1000 feet superficial measure. 



t Ashes are generally preserved in little log houses made on the spot 

 for the purpose, to be kept dry for sale in the winter, to merchants, at 5rf. 

 per bushel, or to steep them yourself in water, and boil the lye until 

 evaporated to black salts (coarse potash,), to be sold at from 9s. to 18s. 



