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[Page 5]
The Seed was imported from South America about fifty Years ago to make hedges, & it has now spread itself over all the Island, choaking the young Cedars, and depriving those further advanced of a considerable portion of their nourishment. About 8 or 10 years ago the Assembly voted a Premium for planting Cedars of 9sh 4d Currcy pr 100, [9 shillings 4 pence, currency per 100], which in the course of three years having cost the Country as many hundred Pounds, they voted the Premiums a Burthen [burden] & the Cedar to grow better without Cultivation; the self.sown Berries are therefore left to spring up as they have fallen on the Ground: nor do they at any period of their growth think of thinning them, or giving them while tender any shape proper for the Construction of Vessels. They sometimes tho' rarely lop off the lateral Branches 20 feet high. In about 15 or 16 years a Cedar on good Soil a rich red Earth & in a shelterd situation will cut Planters of ten Inches; in a lighter sandy Soil, it is from 20 to 25 years attaining that Sizes where the ground is very rocky & there is no depth of Soil it is never of any value but for firewood; which is however a dear Article sold by weight at eighteen pence a pound. It is cut down at any season of the Year when it is wanted; the little sap & excessive closeness of the Grain render seasoning unnecessary & it may be worked up the very day after it is felled. The consumption of Timber in ship building has at all times outstript its Growth; & it is now become so scarce that Cedar of a quality fit for furniture is hardly to be met with, & has therefore entirely passed from the hands of the Cabinet Makers to the Shipwrights, for whose use a plank of ten Inches is said to be better adapted than a wider: but I rather suspect the scarcity & the high Price it bears are the chief inducements to cutting down the Timber, when it has scarcely attained the half of its Growth.