64

INDUSTRIOUS IRISH SETTLERS.

with them, henceforth appeared as virtues in the eyes of my fellow-traveller, in whose honour the Woodstock charivari had been got up by the Woodstock Orangemen. These families, however, were really industrious, had good crops, and appeared to be thriving. One of the settlers, called MacLachlan, had eleven children, and a farm of 200 acres, of which 60 were cleared. He had cut 10 tons of hay, and had some of the best oats and potatoes I had seen in the province. He had been in the country four years, and had cleared all with his own hands: I suppose that means with the help of his children, for all can do something. He said an emigrant who had £20 in his pocket, after paying for his land, would be easy. He only required a little to carry him on till his first crops were gathered. His own 200 acres, with the 60 cleared, he said, might now be worth £100. There were many excellent hard-working Scotch and Irish farmers in the neighbourhood, he added; the natives. -native-born he meant--were too lazy, and liked lumbering better. Indeed, the more I saw of North America all over, the more I was satisfied that an indolent man will do better at home than on the new continent; but industry and patience are sure to be rewarded with competence and a comfortable living.

Another Irishman had been three years in the country, and a third only one year. All were happy, and had excellent crops, with new-chopped land burning for those of next year. One of these had paid £50 for his 200 acres, because a little of it had been cleared. The Government price is 3s. currency an acre, and 3d. for surveying, payable in four instalments, or 20 per cent discount for ready money; so that 1000 acres would cost £120 to Government, and £12 to the surveyor.

These Irish settlers struck me as representing industry personified. I saw many others of the same nation, afterwards, of whom I could not speak so well. The

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 sawmills 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.

E

66

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

68

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 purIt is generally upland of second quality, a sort

poses.

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.