54 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



or having the common right of taking them. The pioneer, who 

 is willing to forsake his kind, can find places where he can 

 supply his animal wants with almost as little forethought as 

 the fowls and wild beasts require. An old Jerseyman, whom 

 I found on the western coast of Newfoundland, told me that was 

 the best place in the world to live in. "Why," said he, "here is 

 wood for the cutting. A little patch of ground produces all the 

 potatoes and cabbages I want. In the spring, when the her- 

 ring come in, I can take enough of them to send to Halifax 

 in the fall for all my flour and supplies. In the winter there 

 is plenty of game for eating and to give me a good bit of 

 money for their skins." Another Euglishman, who owned a 

 little tradiug schooner, gave me nearly the same account, and 

 then added, "here we have no taxes to pay," and then he 

 recounted with intense expressions of disgust the taxes which 

 they had to pay in Halifax for roads, for schools and churches ! 

 He paid taxes for no such things, and he was content to have 

 none of them. And such men you find all up the coast of 

 Labrador and on our western frontiers, scattered all up and 

 down among the Rocky Mountains, — men who live mainly 

 on the natural products of the earth, — a mode of living 

 impossible when population so increases, as to give the 

 benefits of civilized life. While it is easy for men to live 

 under such conditions, and comparatively easy for men who 

 have fortunes left to them, to start in the world in any busi- 

 ness, it behooves the American people to consider the prob- 

 lem how every one of their citizens may secure a home, and 

 secure to himself and his children at once, the advantages of 

 civilized life. We can, any of us, start ofi" and find a home 

 of our own ; land is waiting for us. I have spent a good 

 deal of time, where, if I liked a piece of land to live upon, all 

 I had to do was to measure it off and take possession ; and it 

 was mine ; land rich, surrounded by grand scenery, and 

 abounding in mineral wealth. We can start for such places 

 to-morrow. But who wants to go as a pioneer? To take 

 the chances of the neighbors that may settle near him, shut 

 himself out from the refinements of civilized life, and bring 

 his children up amid the surroundings that may be a curse to 

 them? Especiall}'^ if he is poor, — has but just means enough 

 to reach his plot of ground, he has the risk of sickness and 



