SECRETAET'S REPORT. 25 



husbandry. Pity 'tis, that on so fertile a soil, a higher grade may 

 not be as successfully pursued ; but it is the part of prudence to be 

 governed in our action by circumstances, never forgetting to control 



Either one or the othersystetn is good, that is, profitable a^'cording to circumstances : 

 in the one case, the gross revenue may be great; in the other the net revenue may be 

 the largest, on the whole.'' 



The above quotation is from Dr. Robb's admirable lecture on agricultural progress 

 in New Brunswick. What follows, though less pertinent to the point now in hand, 

 is equally suggestive and interesting in connection with our general subject : 



"In this country, high farming is little known as yet: in the old country it is 

 exteftding every day. English examples are not, therefore, always the best for us, 

 and English criticisms on our condition are not necessarily infallible. Much of what 

 is written for England is in fact unsuitable here, and a cautious adaptation of Eng- 

 lish practices is required; for, after all, I may venture to say that farmers here are 

 quite as anxious to be in good credit with their banker as they can be in England. 

 In England they demand incessantly an increase of agricultural science; what we 

 chiefly require here at present is the diffusion of principles already established. 

 High farming ought always to be our aim here, but it must be taken up with care 

 and judgment, and perhaps may not become general, until labor is more plenty, and 

 railroads in active operation. In New Brunswick, a mixed system, or compromise 

 between grain husbandry and pastoral husbandry, is the rule; that is, an indifferent 

 alternation of crops is followed for six or seven years; after which, grass is cut or 

 pastured for an equal period. Such is the practice which prevails most generally in 

 the country, but, in numerous instances a shorter and better rotation is steadily and 

 profitably pursued. Our first aim ought to be to learn to make or save manure 

 enough, so as to shorten or do away with the long fallow, and restore fertility to our 

 arable land in a shorter space of time than at present. 



While acknowledging on the one hand, the great progress in agriculture which 

 has of late years taken place in this respect, in some parts of the Province, I see 

 again hut little advancement in others; nevertheless, I am not disposed, as many 

 are, lightly to disparage our new settlers, on account of the magnitude of their 

 clearings and their comparative unproductiveness It seems to be the result of neces- 

 sity rather than of design. These clearings have been enlarged, not simply because 

 the owner meditated a greater breadth of cropping, as previously stated, but because 

 he was compelled to do so, inasmuch as he could get no more crops from the land 

 which had been cultivated. Nay, How could he do so ? He brought with him into 

 the dark forest many years ago, we may suppose, only a wife as young as himself, a 

 cow and a pig, an old horse, an axe, and a grindstone. Such were the first settlers; 

 such were their agricultural implements and their farm stock. By a strong and 

 willing arm, the forest was speedily cleared to the extent of a few acres, and the 

 new settler got a little cash for all that he could spare of his first, best crops, from 

 a lumber party in the neighborhood. Indeed, I believe he often hired out to them 

 himself, and found the old camp life as jolly as ever. Sooth to say, most of us 

 would have done the same. But, having no chance of buying manure, and having 

 sold his hay and oats off the farm, he could have little manure upon it; and, having 



