The Bermudians destroyed the local habitat in order to develop the salt industry that became the central pillar of Bermuda's economy, felling huge numbers of trees to discourage rainfall that would adversely affect their operation. This deforestation, a foretaste of the deforestation of Bermuda by shipbuilding a century before the cedar blight, has yet to be repaired. Most of the salt mined in the Turks and Caicos Islands was sold through Bermudian merchant houses on the American seaboard, including in New England and Newfoundland where it was used for preserving cod.