12

PROSPECTS OF THIS STONY SURFACE.

have gathered from their fields in other parts of the same island, indicate that, within comparatively recent periods, they have been little better; while what England has been may be inferred from the fact that, in an oldfarmed district in Northumberland, I have myself known of six hundred cart-loads of trap boulders being raised and carried out of a single field. I am less inclined, therefore, than some may be to bewail as hopeless the apparently unimproveable condition even of the stonier parts of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The progress of agriculture in such districts is necessarily slow, but a thousand years will do for these countries infinitely more than it has done for us. Productive fields and farms have indeed already risen in many places from among the rocks and stones around the city of Halifax. The market it affords for produce, and the wealth from time to time accumulated by its merchants, have had their effect upon the surface; and gardens and fields and small farms have gradually spread their cheerful surfaces along the hilly slopes which skirt the beautiful bay. But where and while such stony tracts occur, arable farming on a large scale can never be carried on. It is not in this neighbourhood, therefore, that the agricultural emigrant is to look for those rural attractions which are to dispose him to settle in Nova Scotia.

One would scarcely expect that much should ever have been done in such a locality for the general promotion of North American agriculture. And yet I was much interested to meet with a work published at Halifax in 1822, under the title of Letters of Agricola, by John Young, Esq.-the father, I believe, of the present Attorney-General of the province-which, for sound knowledge of the subject, both practical and scientific, for honest common sense, and for a warm but prudent zeal to improve the country in which he lived, is, as a whole, superior to any other book of the time I have hitherto

LETTERS OF AGRICOLA.

13

met with in any language. It was not to be wondered at that, through the exertions of Mr Young, a provincial Board of Agriculture should have been established, and many county agricultural societies, which still exist, though less patriotically urged forward, perhaps, than in his time.

The publication of the Letters of Agricola marks an era in the agricultural history of the province; the writings of the author of Sam Slick an era, not only in its social history, but in that of the steam traffic and intercourse of the world. Both writers must rank among the truest patriots of Nova Scotia. Is there none in the province now who can take up the mantle of Young again, and re-awaken, in behalf of agriculture, the spirit which, thirty years ago, when less was known of its principles, he was so successful in creating?

If we are permitted to draw any conclusion from the increase of population in Nova Scotia, this province would appear to have advanced as rapidly as almost any other part of North America. The number of its inhabitants, at different periods, is stated to have been

The province has many resources in fishing, mining, and agriculture, and cannot be prevented from increasing, both in population and in wealth. But its progress will be more rapid in proportion to the wisdom, energy, and singleness of purpose of those whom the colonists-to whom all public officers are now responsible-may select to manage their affairs.

It possesses an area of nine and a half millions of acres, of which five and a quarter millions are granted to private parties, and four and a quarter still remain in the hands of the provincial Government. It does not grow corn

14

FOOD PRODUCE OF THE PROVINCE.

enough for its own consumption; but Dr Gesner states, that not a fiftieth part of the surface is cleared of timber, and that not a hundredth part is in cultivation.*

Now, one hundredth part of the whole area is about 95,000 acres; and supposing this to produce, at the same rate as the cultivated land of Great Britain-of which each 170 acres supports 100 inhabitants—they would raise food for about 60,000 inhabitants. But the surface of Nova Scotia is not so well cultivated or so productive, as a whole, as Great Britain. Its 95,000 cultivated acres, therefore, do not support so many as 60,000 of its people. On the other hand, it is certain, from the quantity of food actually imported, that more than 60,000, or one-fifth of the population, must be maintained by what the province itself produces. I conclude, therefore, that Dr Gesner's estimate of the proportion of the province which has already been brought into cultivation is largely understated.

Again, according to the estimate of Dr Gesner, not more than one-half of the population is employed in agriculture, the rest being engaged in lumbering, fishing, &c. That is, each person employed in agriculture raises less food than is necessary to support two people-since there is a large importation of American flour. But, in England and Scotland, only one-fourth of the population is engaged in, or dependent upon, agricultural employment; that is, each person occupied in tilling the land raises food for four people. Hence Nova Scotia is not made to yield half so much food as Great Britain, in proportion to the number of people employed in agriculture, if Dr Gesner is nearly right as to the number so employed in Nova Scotia.

I think he can scarcely be under the truth in estimating the agricultural population at one half of the whole. We are compelled, therefore, to conclude, either that the land in general is not grateful for the labour expended upon * Industrial Economy of Nova Scotia, p. 23. + Ibid., p. 24.

INNER HARBOUR OF HALIFAX.

15

it, or that the inhabitants are deficient in industry; or that, from want of agricultural skill, their labour is not turned to the best account, and the capabilities of their soil not fully brought out.

From my brief stay in the province, and the peculiar aridity of the season, I had not an opportunity of determining these points by my own observation; but, from all I have learned, I am inclined to attribute much of the comparative deficiency of produce in the province to a want either of skill or of persevering industry on the part of the cultivators.

On the morning of Thursday the 9th of August I left Halifax, by stage, for Windsor, whence the steamboat proceeds across the Bay of Minas and the Bay of Fundy, to St John in New Brunswick. The morning was fine, and the ride up the west side of the bay very delightful. The harbour of Halifax consists of an outer and an inner bay, both of great extent. The inner bay, which is completely land-locked, is as yet little frequented, even by boats; and one laments to see so many fine sites for houses and clearings, on both shores, unoccupied and almost desolate. The land in general is poor and stony, and wealth has not yet so largely accumulated at Halifax as to give a value to the comparatively unproductive margins of this wide inner lake.

A ride of ten miles brought us to Sackville, at the head of the lake, where we stopped to breakfast. In passing over these first ten miles on a new continent, a native of Great Britain or Ireland, though not learned in trees, can hardly fail to be struck with the new and varied general outlines, forms of leaf, and appearances of bark, which force themselves upon his attention. The varieties of pines, maples, and birches, and the peculiar foliage of the native oak and ash trees, give much novelty to the journey along the borders of this lake. Little spots of land occurred along its margin, of various quality, and

16

RAILWAY FROM HALIFAX TO WINDSOR.

suited, therefore, to the growth of a larger number of species of trees than are usually seen over much greater distances in the interior of the country.

Above Sackville, which as yet is little more than an inn, with its necessary outbuildings-but which will, no doubt, be the site of a future town-several small streams unite in a main valley, and empty themselves into the head of the lake. Up this valley, and across the peninsula, runs the road to Windsor and the line of the projected railway between Halifax and that town. As a means of facilitating and hastening the communication between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the execution of this railway would be of great benefit to both provinces. With good steamers on the Bay of Fundy, this short line would reduce the distance in time between Halifax and St John to ten or twelve hours, and would make the Cunard steamers greatly more useful to the province of New Brunswick. And if, as is likely to be the case, the transport of merchandise across the Atlantic by steam is to be diminished in cost, and to become much more common and extended, this railway would at once promote the extension of such a traffic. And while by this traffic the steamers themselves would be aided, the commerce of New Brunswick would obtain the advantage of a direct and easy weekly access to the European markets. Were this railway constructed, we might hope, within a brief period, to see merchant steamers plying between Halifax only and the British ports on the Mersey, the Clyde, and the Bay of Galway, laden with the lighter articles of traffic which the merchants on either side can mutually interchange. Thus, not only would the settlement and more rapid improvement of the part of Nova Scotia, through which the railway is to run, be greatly promoted, but the general commerce of the two provinces also increased, and the extension and profit of Atlantic steam communication hastened on.