St. Williams Forestry Norfolk Today

"The phough is seldom put into the land before the third or fourth year, nor is it required; the general plan of cropping the first fallow with wheat or oats, and sowing grass-seeds with the grain to make pastures, renders the plough unnecessary till such time as the grass-lands require to be broken up.  This method is pursued by most settlers while they are clearing bush-lands; always chopping and burning enough to keep a regular succession of wheat and spring crops, while the former clearings are allowed to remain in grass." ~ Catharine Parr Traill (1802, 1899)

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/moodie-traill/027013-3000-e.html

"For myself, though I can easily enter into the feelings of the poet and the enthusiastic lover of the wild and the wonderful of historic lore, I can yet make myself very happy and contented in this country.  If its volume of history is yet a blank, that of Nature is open, and eloquently marked by the finger of God; and from its pages I can extract a thousand sources of amusement and interest when ever I take my walks in the forest or by the borders of the lakes."

~ The Backwoods of Canada Catharine Parr Traill Being Letters from the Wife of an Emigrant Officer, McClelland & Stewart, Limited, 1929.