94 Industrial Experiments in Colonial America. 



On arriving in New England, the surveyor found that great 

 destruction had gone on during his absence, and that Lieut. 

 Governor Vaughan had removed three of the deputies and put 

 in creatures of his own, who "suffered anything to be done 

 which pleased the people."^ There had been an act passed by 

 Parliament in 171 1,- for the more eiifectual preservation of the 

 white pines, of which the best and largest masts were made, and 

 which the loggers cut up for boards in a most reckless fashion. 

 The penalty for cutting "a white or any other pine tree not the 

 property of any private person, such tree being of the growth 

 of 24 inches in diameter or upwards at 12 inches from the 

 earth, "without His Majesty's license," had been fixed at £100 

 sterling. For a wdiile the measure may have had some little 

 effect in preventing the ruin of the large mast trees, but Bridger 

 wrote to the Board of Trade soon after his return to the woods, 

 that the people were now spending their energies in cutting up 

 the trees under 24 inches, pleading the act itself in justification; 

 so that unless the act were amended, all the young trees would 

 be ruined.^ Another destructive practice of the people was to 

 box one pine tree for turpentine in two or three places at once. 

 The surveyor succeeded in getting an act passed in New Hamp- 

 shire forbidding the making of more than one box at a time 

 on one tree.* Governor Shute complied with his instructions 

 by issuing a proclamation requiring due observance of the char- 

 ter and the acts of Parliament passed for the preservation of the 

 woods, and directing all officers to assist the surveyor in seizing 

 trees cut without license and in prosecuting transgressors.^ 

 Bridger wrote to ask that the then vacant place in the Council 

 be given to him, because it would insure him greater authority 

 and respect.*^ He seems to have carried with his second com- 



^Mr. Bridger to the Board of Trade, B. T. New Eng., V: 167. 

 -9 Anne, c. 22, and B. T. New Eng., Entry Bk. G., Jan. 16, 1710. 

 ^Mr. Bridger to Secretary Burchett, B. T. New Eng., V: 130. 

 *Copy of act of New Hampshire to encourage hemp, etc., B. T. 

 New Eng., W: 68. 



''Copy of proclamation by Gov. Shute, B. T. New Eng., X: 29. 

 *Mr. Bridger to the Board of Trade, B. T. New Eng., V: 167. 



