Agricultural History Review, Volume 65 Part 1 (2017), pp. 74–93

In the first half of the nineteenth century, Scots were among the many European immigrants who tried to turn North American forests into productive farms. They understood how livestock were integral to this project, providing draught power, meat, leather, wool, tallow, manure and income. However they had no experience of rearing and sustaining pigs, cattle and sheep in the old growth forest of Upper Canada. They brought some skills and knowledge from Scotland, but much was learned from neighbours, books and by experimentation. Emigrant guides, agricultural reports and personal letters indicate how exactly settlers utilized woodlands to feed and shelter animals in those first few years. As Scottish immigrants became more settled, they transformed much of the forest which had initially sustained them into arable and high quality pasture and meadow. 

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