66 Industrial Experiments in Colonial America. 



skill in preparing the trees. ^ The Board of Trade wrote back 

 that Mr. Bridger, the surveyor, would give them any instruc- 

 tions they required. 



The products imported from New England the first year 

 under the new act, amounting to 6,191 barrels of tar, 647 of 

 pitch, 1,145 of turpentine, and 90 of rosin,- were, necessarily, of 

 somewhat inferior quality, because they had been prepared 

 before Bridger's arrival. The latter wrote that he hoped the 

 authorities would be lenient in awarding the bounty, on account 

 of the stores having been made without instructions; he would 

 engage that future importations should equal those from the 

 East Country. He said that the interest of the New Englanders 

 in the outconie of this first venture was intense ; that every- 

 thing was stopped to aw^ait the result ; and he urged that if the 

 people were disappointed in receiving the bounty on their first 

 load, they would not try again, but would return to spinning 

 and sheep-raising.-' 



On receipt of this w^arning, the Board of Trade recommended 

 to the Lord High Treasurer that the undertaking should be en- 

 couraged by payment of the full premium, without too much 

 scruple about the quality. They also called a conference of the 

 Navy Board to consider Bridger's communications,* and after 

 the consultation reported the results to the Privy Council. The 

 Navy said that they must distinguish between their own inter- 

 ests and those of England. They were obliged by their in- 

 structions to buy stores where they could find them cheapest, 

 and they had, therefore, usually preferred the pitch and tar of 

 Sweden. Tliey had already made their contracts for the en- 

 suing year,^ a part of the supplies being expected from New 



^Gov. Seymour to the Board of Trade, June 12, 1706, B. T. Md. 

 Docts., H: 22D. 



^Mr. Bridger to the Board of Trade, B. T., New Eng., Q: 53. 



^Bridgerto the Board of Trade, B. T. New Eng., Q: 52. 



*Board of Trade to the Lord High Treasurer, B, T. New Eng., 

 Entry Bk. P., December 6, 1706. 



^It appears that Swedish prices had fallen in consequence of the 

 act. B. T. Plants. Gen., Entry Bk., D., March 21, 1711, Report of the 

 Board of Trade. 



