labour they undergo appears severe; but I am told, by those who have themselves gone through it, that it is not really so severe as it appears to be, and that it is by no means unpleasant. This is intelligible enough after the anxieties and seasoning of the first year are over, and the crops on the new land begin to ripen. One comfort certainly attends it, the greatest of all earthly ones, undisturbed good health. Ague and fever, as I have already said of the sea-coast of the province, are unknown; and a healthier set of children of all ages I have never seen anywhere than greet the eyes of the stranger all over this province.

The slate rocks towards this upper part of the St John become more calcareous, and beds of limestone occasionally occur, which will afford an additional means of advancement to the future agriculture of the country.

The town of Colebrook is prettily situated, on a little peninsula, formed by a sharp turn of the river St John, which here precipitates itself perpendicularly over a ledge of slate rocks from a height of 58 feet. It then proceeds through a narrow rocky gorge of hard slate for about three-quarters of a mile, in the course of which it descends 58 feet more, making its total descent 116 feet. As a picturesque object the falls are very striking, when seen from the high over-hanging rocky cliffs, and well deserve a visit. Economically, they form a great reservoir of mechanical power, which on some future day will, no doubt, be made available for useful purposes. Some years ago saw - mills were erected upon the edge of the falls on a large scale, and expensive constructions made by the late Sir John Caldwell, which brought many people about the place, and for a time quickened the growth of the town. These works, however, have been long ago abandoned; the buildings have been allowed to go to decay, and

VOL. I.

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TOWN OF COLERIDGE.

only a few rare trees were being cut up, by this huge force, when I visited the scene of Sir John's indefatigable exertions, and expensive ingenuity.

Coleridge, being the lower limit of the navigation of the Upper St John, which drains an extensive and improvable country, must hereafter become a town of considerable consequence. This will be hastened and increased if the proposed improvement in the St John, between the head of the tide-waters near Fredericton, one hundred and twenty miles below the Grand Falls, be carried into effect, and if, by means of a canal through the peninsula at Coleridge, the navigation of the upper can be connected with that of the lower part of the river. It is unfortunate that, in a new country like this, there is always more to be done than there is of money to do it with; and that, consequently, many most desirable improvements are obliged to stand over, till more favourable times arrive. Colebrook is a very old military station, which it is now thought expedient to strengthen, from its proximity to the American boundary as fixed by the Ashburton Treaty.

CHAPTER III.

Upper St John.-Colonel Coomb's farm.-Growth and consumption of buckwheat.-Aversion to the oat among settlers of French extraction. -Valley of the Madawaska.-Edmonston, or Little Falls.-Houses of the Acadian farmers.-Tea-dinners.-Ascent of the river Tobique. -Rich upper lands of this river.-Large growth of buckwheat.Why buckwheat is unfavourable to good husbandry.—Terraces of the St John River. Autumnal tints of North America--Ferry farm at Woodstock.-Time of growth of grain crops in New Brunswick.Sumach trees.-Apple orchards.-Scotch settlement.-Making land at Fredericton.-Rising of stones under the influence of the frost.— Turnip culture in the province.-Fire-weeds and Canada thistle. -Stanley, the settlement of the New Brunswick Land Company. -Heavy wheat in this province.-Price of farms.-Hop culture.— Running fire in the fields.-Bilbery swamp.-Farm and opinion of an Aberdonian.—Advice to intending emigrants.—Wild raspberry.— Raspberry hay.-Mare's-tail cut for hay.-Boistown.-Great fire of 1825.-Gloomy landscape.-Fires in the forest.-Nakedness of the cleared land. An Irish settler.-Evil of farmers engaging in the timber trade.-Deserted farms, and emigration to the United States, how brought about.-Success of farmers in New Brunswick, who mind their farms only.-Price of farms on the Miramichi River.Increasing consumption of oatmeal.-Legislative bounty for the erection of oatmeal mills.

MONDAY, 20th August.-At nine in the morning we started for Edmonston, or the Little Falls, at the mouth of the Madawaska, where the latter river empties itself into the St John. The distance is about forty miles. After ascending the right bank about a mile, we crossed the river by a ferry-boat, and continued our journey up the left bank, as only a few miles farther up the state of Maine comes down to the water's edge, and the river

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COLONEL COOMB'S FARM.

forms the international boundary. The soil and country, after we crossed the river, immediately became of inferior quality, and the settlers appeared to be both needy and indifferent cultivators.

They were chiefly French Canadians, brought here to work at the saw-mills; and who, seven years ago, on the failure of this employment, squatted on the pieces of land they now occupy. Freehold grants of land on the Upper St John were withheld by the Government, till about a year ago, when the disputed boundary question had been settled.

At a distance of twelve miles we came to Colonel Coomb's farm, the first piece of good land of any extent, upon the bank of the river, which we had yet passed. The hill-tops on each side of the road and river were generally covered with soft wood; but farther inland the land was said to be better adapted to farming purposes. It is generally upland of second quality, a sort of third-rate soil.

Colonel Coomb's farm contains 1025 acres, of which 80 only were cleared. Of these, 50 acres consist of high intervale or terrace, of a light-coloured clay loam, occasionally sandy, as is the case with nearly all the higher terraces. This intervale land he valued at £15 an acre, the cleared upland at £3, and the whole farm at £1200 to £1500. On the intervale I walked through beautiful crops of potatoes, oats, and Indian corn. The heads of the Indian corn were large, and fully formed, but had not yet escaped from their sheath. It was sown on the 28th of May, and the crop I saw would yield 50 or 60, though the average is only about 30 bushels an acre. It generally ripens here.

On the poorer soil of the upland, buckwheat is sown, and yields 35 bushels. This grain has been everywhere very extensively cultivated in New Brunswick of late years, and since the wheat has become so precarious a crop.

CULTIVATION OF BUCKWHEAT.

69

We saw large breadths of it, on our way up the valley, during the remainder of this day's journey; and, subsequently, in nearly all parts of the province. Colonel Coomb assured us that at least three-fourths of all the bread consumed in this district was made of buckwheat. It is used chiefly in the state of thin cakes, called pancakes. These are generally small, and, when nicely made and browned, very much resemble our English crumpets, with half their thickness. They are eaten hot, and generally with butter and molasses, or maple honey. All over Northern America these pancakes are seen at the breakfast and tea table, and are really very good. As to the nutritive quality of this grain, I find by analyses, which I have since had made, that buckwheat flour possesses about the same value, in this respect, as our best varieties of British-grown wheat.

Potatoes yield here 250 bushels an acre, and oats 30 bushels. Wheat used to yield 25 bushels. Newly cleared upland will yield 20, and old upland 10 to 15 bushels of wheat, when this crop succeeds; but for the last seven years Colonel Coomb's had not raised enough for his own family.

I found that in this valley, as I subsequently found in Lower Canada and in the north-eastern parts of this province, the oat is generally disliked as food by the natives of French extraction. This is one reason why

they live so much on buckwheat cakes, and on bread made of mixed buckwheat, barley, and rye. The oats of New Brunswick are very good, and are said sometimes to weigh as much as 50 lb. a bushel. They form one of the most certain crops of the province; and hence both the cultivation and the use of the oat for food has, of late years, been greatly extending.

The oat is a kind of grain which differs much in quality and in palatableness, according to the variety raised, the climate in which it is grown, and the way in which it