112 AGRICULTUEAL JiESOUECES. 



Jess f<])ecit's (if berries are fouml in great profusion tlirongliout 

 the couiilrv.'' 



KEPOET OF THE JOINT C03IMITTEE. 



lu 1880 a Joint Committee of the Council and House of As- 

 sembly, appointed to consider the i[Uestion of constructing a 

 railway in the island, prescuti'il a report of -which the folhjwing 

 are extracts : — " Our agi'icidtural industry, thougli prosccutetl to 

 a vahialilc extent, is yet susreptil^e of very enharged develop- 

 ment. Vast stretclies of agricultural hand, extending from 

 Ti'inily ]^>ay nortli, ahing the heads of Bonavista Bay, Gander 

 Bay, and Exploits Eiver, as Avell as on the west coast, m-ed only 

 the emjdoyment of well-directed Lilioui' to convert them into 

 means of independi'ut sujiport for ihousands of the ]ioiiulation.'' 

 . . . " The incpury is furtlu-r suggested whether this colony 

 bhouM niit lierome an e'xportei' of live stock : and wt- liave little 

 diliiculty in atlirming this position. For grazing purjioses we 

 have large ti"icts that we believe ciiiiiiol be surjtassed in Biiti.sh 

 Xorth America ; and when Ave regard our proximity to Englaml, 

 and the all-important consideration of a short voyage for live 

 stock, the advantages which we possess in this connection are too 

 manih'st to be the sul)ject of question or ai'gument." 

 fSlK HEXKY BLAKE'S OPINION. 



.Sir Henry Blake, now Coveiaior of Jamaica, was (iovernor of 

 Newfoundland in 1887, and was one of the ablest and most 

 tMiergetic rulers the i.sland has seeu. In opening the annual agri- 

 cultural exhibition at St. .lolm's, in that year, he said : — '' That 

 a society of lietween 40 and .")() members should get up such an 

 agricultui'al sliow as this, in wln'cli j>rizes to the amount of $^500 

 and .$'600 are offered, besides the two handsome silver cups, pre- 

 .sented for competition, is highly <reditable to the members of 

 till! .'^ociefy. As I went around tlie show-yard, if I had not 

 already formed an opinion a< to tlie capal)ilities of the soil from 

 what I have s(!en since my advent to the Colony, I should have 

 been sur])iase,ii, as I am gratified, to see such exhibits in every 

 branch of the faiinei's imlusti-v. You have demonstrated that 



