rii.A I'TEi; IV. 



AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES AND FOREST 

 WEALTH. 



The jn'fvicnis cliiiplc:- l'uiiii,~lics some gpuei-al idea ol' tlie agii- 

 cnltiu'al lands of tlie island \vliicli the new line of railway will 

 open for settlement. These, we liave seen, are of considerahh' 

 extent and valne, and eajiahli- of sustaining a very large pojmla- 

 tion when reelaimed, wliilc at ]iresent tlieir forest wealth is very 

 great and can now lie turm-d to aeeount. A more detailed ac- 

 count, however, is necessary for the information of those who 

 are disposed to invest capital in lands suited for settlement, and 

 also to aid those M"ho arc dc-irmi^ of settling on the unoccupied 

 lands in finding such local iiais as may repay their industrious 

 efforts. 



KXTKNT ()|- AKABLK LANDS. 



To many it will lie a sur[iiisc to find Newfoundland spoken of 

 as an agricultural country. Tlu' prevailing idea, still to some 

 extent prevalent regarding it, is that it is a disnral, Ibg-envehiped 

 country, whose savage climate and jioor soil jireclude all altem]its 

 at agricidture. This is \ery far from being in accordance with 

 facts. It is (juite true that there are wide ti-acts in the island 

 irreclaimably barren ; others unfit for arable purposes, though 

 excellent for grazing ; and dtliers covered with marshes and 

 what the people call "liarrens." Lakes and ponds occujiy a 

 third of the siirface of the whole island. But the same holds 

 good of nu;ch of the United States and Canada, wlierc \ast 

 areas are hopelessly barren and would ne\'er repay cultivation. 

 The agricultural lands of the island lie in belts, and mainly 

 along the valleys through which the jirincipal rivers run, oi' 

 around the heads of the great bays or the margins of the smaller 

 streams. In the aggregate these comprise a very fair projiortion 

 of the whole land area of the island. If we take the whole area 



